/>7 

SERMONS , 



DIFFERENT SUBJECTS. 



DELIVERED 



IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA, 



BY / 

REV. EDWARD NORRIS KIRK, A. M., 

LATE PASTOR* OF THE FOURTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ALBANY, N. Y. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 

BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D. 



And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge, 
and in all judgment." Phil. i. 9. 



n 



SECOND EDITION REVISED. 



NEW YORK: 

FOR SALE BY 

GOULD, NEWMAN & SAXTON, 

PHILADELPHIA.— HENRY PERKINS. 
BOSTON.— IVES & DENNETT. 
1840. 






jr-i o- -2. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, 

By WILLIAM A. THOMPSON, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern 

District of New York. 



f | 



i, 



STEREOTYPED BY 

F .RAN CIS F. RIPLEY, 

NEW YORK. 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 031706 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The Author of the following Sermons has 
specially requested the publishers to state, that 
" an application for a set of discourses in man- 
uscript was positively refused ; from an aver- 
sion to appearing, in present circumstances, as 
an author. The Sermons now published, were 
already public property ; and the only agency, 
whether benevolent or indifferent, which the 
author has exercised in the matter, was, to 
furnish a worthy but indigent fellow-Christian 
some facilities for collecting the pamphlets, 
especially those published abroad." 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Introduction. — By Samuel Hanson Cox, D. D., 
Brooklyn, N.-Y., 7 

SERMON I. 

Agreement with God. — Preached in Surrey 
Chapel, London, 27 

SERMON II. 

Man's Natural Enmity to God. — Published 
in London in the « Pulpit," 45 

SERMON III. 

Obligations of Young Men. — Preached in be- 
half of the British and Foreign Young Men's 
Society. Published in London, 65 

SERMON IV. 

Jesus the Great Missionary. — Preached in 
Boston, at the ordination of Rev. Samuel Wol- 
cott, as Missionary to Syria, 93 

SERMON V. 

The Christian Ministry. — Preached at Chest- 
nut College, near London, 127 

l* 



VI CONTENTS. 

SERMON VI. 

The Nature and Influence of Maternal 

Associations. — Preached in Surrey Chapel, 



London, 



SERMON VII. 

Sermon to Children. — Preached in Surrey- 
Chapel, London, 181 



SERMON VIII. 
Practical love to Christ. — Preached in Isl- 
ington Chapel, London, 199 



SERMON IX. 
Temperance and Religion. — Preached in Lock- 
fields Chapel, Walworth London, 217 

SERMON X. 
The Traffic in Alcohol. — Preached in Albany, 255 

SERMON XL 
Valedictory Sermon. — Preached in Albany, . 297 
Addresses to Promote the Revival of Re- 
ligion. — Delivered in Surrey Chapel, London. 

ADDRESS 1 329 

ADDRESS II 341 

ADDRESS III 353 

ADDRESS IV 363 






INTRODUCTION. 

BY SAMUEL HANSON COX, D. D. BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
(Second Edition Enlarged.) 

These sermons have all been published before. One 
of them, the tenth in the series, was the valedictory of the 
Author to the people of his former charge, before leaving 
the country, three years since. Another, the third, was 
delivered and published in Boston, last Autumn, on an oc- 
casion solemn and interesting, the Ordination of a Mis- 
sionary. And one other, the ninth, was published in 
Albany some years since. The others were all published 
in London, where they were delivered to listening crowds, 
who were not willing that they should be enjoyed only 
in the hearing, or realized alone in the delivery. Hence, 
in different ways, they procured their publication. And 
hence it is that many a pious family here and there in the 
metropolis and other parts of Great Britain, retain, as 
precious relics, and justly valued mementos, of a beloved 
American preacher of the gospel, a copy, and collect- 
ively thousands of copies, of the sermons of our esteemed 
countryman. 

We are not surprised if among ourselves should be 
the demand or the desire for their appearance in the com- 
bined and convenient form of a volume. Their Author 
has many friends, in the cities and neighborhoods of his 
native country, to whom such a counsellor would be a 
comforter, such a companion a constant and salutary 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

friend. And yet it is only an act of justice to our Author, 
to. make the community acquainted with the motives, and 
the proximate causes, that have induced the present pub- 
lication. This the more, that his present distinguished 
career as a preacher, might otherwise prejudice or per- 
vert the estimate of the community. 

Its present appearance, truth to say, is the result of a 
peculiar development of benevolence. The proceeds of 
the publication are to be devoted to an object, which 
enlightened Christianity will approve, and which the 
heart at least of every minister of the Lord Jesus Christ — 
and of some more especially than others — cannot regard 
without the deepest sympathy. Our Author yields his 
volume, that its proceeds may assist indigent students in 
their course preparatory to the ministry. 

And may we here insert a plea in behalf of hundreds, 
it may be, who are laboring up the hill, with patience, 
perseverance, and penury ; the noblemen of grace and of 
nature too, but not of fortune, or titles, or rank ; whose 
object, ingenuously pursued, shows excellence of no 
common kind ; and yet who are estimated as they de- 
serve, by very few of their cotemporaries. Possibly, to a 
mind like that of our Author, the reality might have been 
imagined, even if not identified in any recent instance. 
We have all seen such instances, and the public ought not 
to be wholly ignorant of their existence. 

To such petitioners, what ordinary hardness could 
conclude a refusal 1 A Christian, and a minister of 
Christ, should not be made of sterner stuff, than refined 
humanity in other spheres of life. Nor is our statement 
a mere hypothesis for illustration. O ! it is, in its basis, 
history, veritable and real, as hundreds of affecting in- 
stances attest. And what, to a mind of delicate and no- 
ble texture, and at the same time saturated with the influ- 
ences of grace, what might melt one sooner, into a 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

generous and practical sympathy, than to behold or con- 
template such a spectacle ! A brother in the Lord — a 
young brother — a devoted and self-denied disciple — a 
candidate for the ministry : one that has felt want and 
dreaded to feel it more ; that has toiled by night and day ; 
that has shrunk from no labor, mental or manual ; that 
has endured privation, without repining, for the constrain- 
ing love of Jesus, and for the encouraging hope of 
preaching him ; that has done all this, and done it for 
years— done this, and more, and more, in a catalogue that 
might be lengthened, with items of truth, more wonderful 
than those of fancy or romance ! A youth, of principles 
too ethereal to be appreciated in this intractable world, 
aspiring devoutly towards an office which inspiration 
hath denned as a good work, and worthy of the best de- 
sire of the human bosom ; such an one, applying his 
mind to its mighty and appropriate labors of prepara- 
tion, with vigils, fastings, and exposures ; — and all this, 
augmented by the utter destitution of necessary pecuni- 
ary means! O what obstacles, cumulative, unbearable, 
and wrong ! May it not be sin to them, in the day of 
judgment, who know these things of the noble young 
servants of the Church, and roll in wealth and luxury, 
and profess religion, and have hope towards God through 
the gospel, and yet — do nothing to assist those prin- 
cipled aspirants, those devoted candidates, those studi- 
ous spiritual cadets, who are in process of training for 
official trust and duty in the high places of the field ; and 
who deserve well of Christians, of mankind, and of all 
posterity ! The assiduities and trials, consequent or con- 
comitant, in their curriculum of preliminary study, are 
quite enough, in all human reasonableness, without break- 
ing their courage against mountains interposed, 

And poverty's unconquerable bar. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

There are several reasons why such examples are not 
appreciated by the public. The first is ignorance ; or, 
what is much the same, an utter absence of reflection on 
the facts of the case. Another is the allied consequence 
of the former — a disparagement of the value of sound 
learning in the ministry, or a contempt of the manner in 
which alone it can be acquired. The time, the toil, the 
trial, and the cost, the severe and the necessary process 
of qualification, who knows, that has no experience in 
such conflicts ? Again, the circuity and remoteness of 
the path, the indirectness of the promise ! A preacher 
in the field, if wise and zealous and eloquent, is felt and 
loved. But who sympathizes with the student ? who 
considers the means that were plied to prepare the 
preacher ? the difficulties through which he rose to emi- 
nence ; and the necessity of recruiting the service, by a 
process as long, as pains-taking, as costly, as that which 
enables the accomplished preacher to grace the pulpit 
with manly and masterly displays of the truth ? The 
preacher himself considers them ; and almost none be- 
side ! Here, then, is the secret of our volume's appear- 
ance. Our Author virtually says to his young brethren, 
" If it can assist you, behold, it is at your service." This, 
it strikes us, may have been mainly the process, by which 
his mind arrived at the conclusion, to give these sermons 
to the public, in their present form. And surely his 
countrymen, in their candor and their piety, will gener- 
ously estimate the deed. We know they will ; nor do we 
anticipate the cynic who shall constitute the exception. 
The request, we doubt not, was on their part modest and 
retiring ! But he could see and feel its force instantane- 
ously ; and we commend his decision. May the present 
writer be pardoned, if this seems too ideal, or inappro- 
priate, or imaginary ! But he has witnessed and compas- 
sionated, especially within the last seven years, and con- 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

tinually to this time, too many facts in proof, to doubt the 
correctness of the delineation. Perhaps others may im- 
peach it for exactly opposite reasons ; that it seems not 
ideal, not inapposite, not imaginary. To either class he 
would say, The moral of it, is the whole of it. If Mr. 
Kirk feels for these young- men, let others copy his ex- 
ample. If he assists them, reader, Go thou, and do like- 
wise. Our object in this connection is not so much to ex- 
plain the issuing of the sermons, as to record a plea, 
where it may be profitably felt, in behalf of those, whom 
it would make good men better sympathetically to con- 
sider, and devoutly to estimate in relation to the cause of 
Christ ; and practically to befriend, in their too often 
cheerless and uncomforted career of studious toil, as 
candidates for the noblest office in the sublunary gift of 
God, our Savior. 

From this digression, if it is one, we recover, with no 
intention of apology for what we do not recall, or regret, 
or perpetrate without design. In the mean time, the 
courteous reader, and especially the candid one — a more 
excellent and a less common character — will fully under- 
stand, and probably approve, the conduct of our Author. 
It seems plain that he did, what he ought, in the circum- 
stances ; nor do we anticipate, for him or others, one re- 
gret that these sermons are extant, in American types and 
a compact volume, as the consequence. 

It is not our purpose, however, to deal in commenda- 
tion, surely not in panegyric. The sermons speak for 
themselves. The people of this country, who care to 
read, can appreciate them too. The reputation of our 
Author is neither recent nor ambiguous. Nor is his 
praise confined to any one class of the Churches. Chris- 
tians of all denominations crowd to hear him, and will 
read to love him more. If in either, or in both relations, 
he can do them good, it is the glorious recompense that 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

satisfies the prayer of his heart. If God shall deign to 
use his efforts and his ministry, to this end, it is gratifi 
cation and benediction, whether the mode of it be in the 
pulpit or through the press. If Paul converted thousands, 
by his preaching, through the blessing of God, he has 
with the same mighty aid saved millions more by his 
writings ; and by these, he, being dead, yet speaketh, and 
will speak, and bless mankind, till the trumpet shall sound 
and the dead shall be raised, incorruptible. 

Noanalysis of these sermons, or comparison, or even 
anticipation, of their qualities, seems here appropriate. 
They were partly occasional ; partly and more, the ordi- 
nary specimens of the Author's ministry. A notice of a 
more general sort, and an admonitory reflection or two 
may suit the proper nature of this Introduction. A ves- 
tibule need not be of the same material, with the interior 
of the temple, to which it conducts us. It may be in 
keeping, and in propriety, as well as service, if less 
polished, or finished, or valuable ; to say nothing of its 
proportions, its coloring, or its taste. If this volume is 
to pass the ordeal of criticism, if it is to be tried in the 
crucibles of the schools or the parties, if it is to be tor- 
tured by malignity, or stung by envy, or probed by heart- 
less impudence, we have only to say that it will have 
friends as well as foes ; that there are Reviews, Christian 
in fact, as well as in pretension ; and that if abused and 
evil entreated, it will only seem to join the goodly fellow- 
ship of prophets and apostles, and to be partaker of their 
sufferings and their honors, because it, is one spirit with 
them, and with their common and glorious Master. 
We submit, in order, the following remarks : 
1. We Americans ought to value this publication for 
national reasons. It is a native production. Its Author 
is our own countryman. He has been appreciated abroad, 
and deserves to be cherished at home. We have too 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

little national feeling of this refined and proper sort. 
We are too servile to what is foreign, as if nothing good 
could come from ourselves. Is this noble or ignoble, 
worthy or base, helpful or injurious ? 

What was once said, by the indignant muse of Pope, 
to the theatre-going populace of London, on occasion of 
introducing Addison's great tragedy of Cato, and in his 
admired prologue to that celebrated production, we might 
be allowed to say, with some venturous accommodations 
in this place, to the literary and religious public of our 
own country : 

Our taste precariously subsists too long 

On coarse translation or imported song. 

Dare to have sense yourselves ! Assert the age ; — 

Be justly warmed with your own native page. 

Such works alone should suit our eye or ear, 
As Paul himself might choose to see or hear. 
And purer far, if plainer, strong in truth, 
Our pulpit speaks to listening age and youth. 

Conviction ponders well its thoughts and words, 
And converts show how God the cause regards. 
Be Christian truth our ornament and crown, 
Our best nobility, our just renown ! 

In wealth like these, America, excel, 
And show the world the art of dying well. 
Not here the church is propp'd upon the state ; 
Much more the church sustains the nation great. 

With greater blessedness, 'tis hers to give ; 
While, as she prospers, other interests live. 
And O ! may righteousness exalt our fame, 
And give to all a Christian freeman's name ! 

Be this our nation's prayer, " Thy kingdom comb ;" 
Be God our monarch, this Religion's home ! — 
While every virtue flourishes confess'd, 
Our country's made, by grace and truth, the best ! 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

We have not changed or tortured the original, for more 
than one fourth of this metrical impromptu ; and as to the 
whole of it, we have only to say, that the sentiments may 
be commended or approved, by Americans, without hold- 
ing their judgment responsible for the versification — for 
which, in truth, we nothing comparatively care. In this 
connection, the sentiment is all. Our literature will never 
rise even to its proper level, till we appreciate it wisely 
ourselves ; till we know how to assert the prerogatives of 
men, to think, and then to write, without affectation, ser- 
vility, or insincerity, aiming at usefulness and truth. Our 
very defects ought to stimulate our achievements ; as they 
show the ample opportunity that invites success. Our 
literature is yet in its infancy, our reputation in abeyance. 
But our theological contributions are very far from pecu- 
liarly or disproportionately few and inconsiderable. Our 
Edwards has illustrated our literary and ecclesiastical 
character in two hemispheres. Our Davies, and our 
Dwight, and our Mason, and our Griffin, are only a 
few other specimen stars of numerous constellations that 
spangle our western firmament, where they shone, so dis- 
tinguished, as the angels of the churches and the glory 
of Christ. And though the first name in this series is 
justly viewed as peerless and incomparable, as the one that 
" dwells at the top of metaphysical Niphates, and has 
pitched his tabernacle in the eye of day ;" yet, without at 
all disparaging so much eminence, and conceding the 
mighty sweep of his posthumous influence and his solid 
renown, present and prospective, on all the metaphysics, 
and on all the demonstrations of theological philosophy, 
in our schools, our pulpits, and our very parlors, we aver, 
that we have many practical agents, less brilliant, it may 
be, rather than less useful, that move in a sphere more 
noiseless and less envied, but not less excellent, and who 
are preparing probably for a plaudit and a premium from 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

the Holy Judge Eternal, which will be second to that of 
few, who more conspicuously figure in the almost apothe- 
osis of human blandishment, or who may radiate brightest 
in the almost Pantheon of the admiration of posterity. 

Every worthy contribution to the theological or devo- 
tional literature of a country, helps its influence abroad, 
as well as proportionately augments its excellence at home. 
The whole nation has an interest in it. It is something 
done for mankind. It is an example of what is, and a de- 
monstration of what might be, and an incentive to what 
shall be, which may well provoke and assist the achieve- 
ments of others. Besides, it tends to promote that interest 
in our national home, while it at the same time illumines 
and enriches it, without which patriotism, if it be a pas- 
sion, is not a principle, and religion, if it be a reality, is 
not a symmetry. Pride is not patriotism, even if it be na- 
tional. Nor is patriotism itself a virtue, unless it be the 
offspring of some more generic principle of moral excel- 
lence ; unless it be associated with all the other sisters of 
the family of virtue. Now, there are just two declarations 
of the King of the Universe and the Lord of Destinies, which 
wise men will consider as immoveably at the very founda- 
tions at once of patriotism and national safety ; which 
statesmen and politicians often superficially avoid; and 
which God, in his providential dealings even with our 
own dear selves, chooses never to forget, or violate, or in- 
termit. We will state them, and endeavor briefly to show 
their probable relation to this volume. The first is — 
Righteousness exalteth a nation ; but sin is a re- 
proach to any people. Need we here insist that the 
presence of the former is the absence of the latter ; and 
that the predominance of that which reproachcth, is the 
proportional diminution of that which exalteth? or that 
nothing can truly supersede the dishonor, except that only 
which constitutes the exaltation ? or that it were folly and 



16 INTRODUCTION 



yof 
Lceit, 



impiety to hope for exaltation, in any other than a way 
righteousness ; and that neither arrogance, nor conceit 
nor proud imaginings, will avail, to dissolve or subdue 
our reproach, in the absence of that alone which heaven 
has ordained as the method of the divine protection? 
Hence the second declaration — F^r, saith the prophet 
addressing God, the nation and kingdom that will 

NOT SERVE THEE SHALL PERISH ; YEA, THOSE NATIONS 
SHALL BE UTTERLY WASTED. 

Solemn words ! How they speak to the mind of re- 
flection and the soul of wisdom ! Here, O our country, 
our own dear country, our precious and spacious Ameri- 
ca, our young and venturous, our vast and wonderful, our 
highly-favored and dearly-beloved, world of the Great 
Occident, here, O our aspiring and noble country, is writ- 
ten the sentence of thy destiny — thy glory, if obedient, 
thy desolation, if perverse ! Here are the pivots on which 
turns inevitably the signal of thy weal or thy wo ; and all 
other or adverse things shall be as nothing in their stabil- 
ity and their prevalence. 

Now, we minister to the national welfare, when we give 
to the mass of the popular mind, the moral leaven that 
promotes its righteousness, and so assists its exaltation. 
We do the state some service. We promote correct sen- 
timent, we increase piety, we encourage prayer. And we 
say, with a great man now at home, we trust, in heaven,* 
" I have more confidence in one praying pauper, than in 
forty fighting generals, with no prayer. God alone can 
protect us." 

2. In reference to a volume of sermons, while we 
should not patronize every thing, we should encourage a 
due proportion of sound and popular reading of the re- 
ligious kind. Sermons indeed are not very marketable. 

* The late Dr. Mason. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

They are often not vendible, but only, as we say, a drug 
and a surfeit. Their very name is a soporific, and no 
one thinks of valuing them as other books are valued. 
But should this be so, Christians? May not even sermons 
be entertaining, as well as useful ? Ought not the parlor 
library to be enriched, and even the centre-table to be 
adorned, with them 1 Besides, sermons mark and iden- 
tify the age. Our posterity will talk of our revivals, our 
cast and grade of piety, our times, our learning, our 
preachers, and our Christians. Why not preserve a 
few specimens, and send a few missives, that may tell 
them, what something better than laudable curiosity 
might lead them to desire and to learn, of the generations 
of their ancestors ? 

3. This is too much a hearing age, and not enough 
proportionately a reading and cogitative one in religion. 

There is a class of devout religionists among our- 
selves, who are characterized by their feelings mainly, 
rather than their intelligence. They want none of your 
head religion — none of your prosing doctrinal preach- 
ing — none of your preachers that are so learned — none of 
your discussions in the pulpit — none of your controver- 
sies — nothing to make men think. — All they want in reli- 
gion is feeling. Engagedness is all. They test every thing 
by zeal and feel. They go for heart religion. This ' suits 
the age !' There is no sense in reading and studying so 
much. They would set us all to praying, feeling, acting, 
and converting sinners ; but not to thinking, apprehend- 
ing, comprehending, studying what the Scripture says 
and what the Scripture means, not to reading, or medita- 
tion, and least of all to excel in knowledge unto all riches 
of the full assurance of understanding in the things of 
God. Theirs is a religion of sensation, and as unfit to en- 
dure affliction, to deserve confidence, to authorize depend- 
ence, and to stand the test of martyrdom, as it is to teach 

2* 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

dogmatical theology to an amphitheatre of philosophers 

or, as steam is unfit to control the helm of the Great 

Western, or the British Queen, in her mystic way, which 
science alone can guide, across the ocean. 

To such, if they could suffer the monition of a friend, 
we would say, not zeal, but wisdom is profitable to direct. 
Knowledge is power, and feeling without it is not good. 
Our feelings have an important place in religion ; as steam 
has in navigation. Our feelings, however, were not given 
to govern us, but to be governed by us ; they are to be 
our servants, not our masters ; and never man was good, 
or useful, or great, who did not assert and maintain that 
noble mastery. Look at Hannibal, look at Edwards, 
look at Washington, look at Napoleon, look at Paul — — 
and look — instar omnium — at ONE— of his own class 
alone, who at Pilate's bar answered him nothing ! 

Those who have studied character, and understood it, 
will respond to these sentiments. We may be only grat- 
ifying our own natural inclinations, only serving our- 
selves, when we flame — and rage — and rush on — in reli- 
gion, without reverence or consideration, and condemn 
sobriety and sense in our despised superiors. Now, one 
cure — and a good one — for this holy obstreperousness, 
is to feed the mind with truth — to study the Scriptures — 
to read sermons — and in all, or above all, to think ? O 
this neglected function of our existence? this most dig- 
nifying faculty of our nature, when rightly cultivated and 
proportionately used ; this most degrading accompani- 
ment, when abused, or neglected, or superseded by the 
mere animalism of feeling ! That class of hearers, that 
exemplify the stony ground in the parable, are there de- 
scribed, by our Lord, as full of feeling, promptitude, de- 
cision, ignorance, and spurious affections, He heareth 
the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not 
root in himself; and therefore is it that his religion soon 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

evanishes. He dureth for a while — by and by he is 
offended. And thus is he contradistinguished from the 
good ground hearer ; who heareth the word and under- 

STANDETH it; WHO ALSO BEARETH FRUIT, and bringeth 

forth, some an hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty. 

Feeling is a kind of half-way house, in which the sin- 
ner loves to loiter, for entertainment, between objects of 
sense, which affect animals, and objects of faith, which 
affect angels. He abjures the grossness of external ob- 
jects as influential of his way ; but he clings to internal 
affections as their substitute ; instead of apprehending, 
by faith in the true sayings of God, the things that are 
unseen and eternal. Internal sensation is no more faith, 
than external objects that affect our organs of sense. The 
appropriate design of the ministry is godly edifying, 
which is in faith. Hence, says the apostle to Timothy, 
so do. And with this design, in all things, ought private 
Christians devoutly to concur, for its uniform promotion. 
Other edifying may not be godly, even if it be agreeable. 
And he who simply trusts his feelings, and cares not for 
the difference, is pronounced by inspiration to be insane. 
Prov. xxviii. 26. Heb. v. 14. He cares not for the gos- 
pel, for salvation, or even for God himself. 

We desire that these sermons may not only be sold, 
but read — pondered — digested — improved. This imports 
a cast of character whose auguries are hopeful. It is the 
clean and the useful animals in the law, that ruminate ; 
not the unclean, the carnivorous, the savage ; oxen and 
sheep ; not wolves, hyenas, dogs, or swine. Hence these 
are types of cogitative worshippers ; of them that feed 
on the truth ; who live by every word that proceedeth out 
of the mouth of God ; who relish the truth, and digest it, 
and grow thereby — grow in grace and in the knowledge 
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Suppose these ten sermons were read systematically — 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

regularly — thoughtfully — with memory exercised— witl 
application — with definite desire to obey the Master — to 
be converted to God, if yet we are alienate from him ; 
or, to be advanced in holiness, if we have genuinely be- 
gun our journey: suppose this, my youthful reader, espe- 
cially, in your case. One, every Lord's day, well read, 
would bring you through the series, nearly, in two 
months. And if, like the noble Bereans, you should receive 
the word with all readiness of mind, and search the Scrip- 
tures daily, whether these things are so, and especially if 
you should join sincere prayer to the exercise, for the 
blessing of God to crown its process with salvation, what 
good immense should certainly ensue ! On these condi- 
tions, what a blessing should this volume be, in the circle 
of every family it could enter ! It would resemble the 
ark of the Lord in the household of Obed-edom, where the 
Lord, for its sake, blessed his house and all that pertained 
unto him. 

We venture another remark. 

4. The directions given to the unconverted, in these 
sermons, appear to exemplify the rare merit of correct 
and scriptural, appropriate and convincing, excellent and 
prosperous ! We may not assert that these qualities are 
exhibited in perfection, but that they are here in happy 
illustrations and examples — and that they are far too rare, 
even in the ministrations of eminence. 

The absence of these qualities, with the faults that 
appear in place of them, often constitutes the cardinal 
defect, in sermons otherwise distinguished and incom- 
parable. These preachers can distinguish well between 
a sinner and a saint ; they can define a Christian, depic- 
ture him in his various changes and relations of life, with 
his trials, his privileges, and his prospects, and commend 
him to the desire and the imitation of all hearers. So also 
of a sinner in contrast. They can well describe what he 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

is, how he feels, his state, his motives, his false refuges, 
his criminality, his destiny, his apprehensions, his ago- 
nies ! But there is something more to be done — and this 
is frequently omitted, or never thoroughly despatched and 
perfected, perhaps in the preaching of a lifetime. It is — 

To SHOW A SINNER HOW HE MAY BECOME A SAINT *. and 

then, with suitable appliances of truth, to persuade men, 
and to pray them, as though God did beseech them by us, 
saying, in a way of wisdom and appropiiateness, Be ye 

RECONCILED TO GOD. 

We aver that the grand defect of many an excellent 
sermon, is the absence of the proper directions to the 
sinner and the ungodly man. And we would enforce the 
sentiment that it is a fault, which criticism has been slow 
to arraign, and which reviews have not known how to 
censure. The philosophy of the preacher can ordinarily 
account for it. There is some error in his comprehen- 
sion of the gospel. He makes mistakes not only, but 
practically honors them too, as the pivots and centres of 
orthodoxy. Hence he glories in his mistakes, and would 
become a martyr for their maintenance. Some of these 
are to him, each as the star of Bethlehem, shining on 
his way ; or as the kebla* of his pilgrimage, as a Chris- 
tian and a preacher. If, as a lark of the morning, he 
would soar toward heaven, he soon ceases to aspire. His 
swift pinions are arrested in their flight. They stop sud- 
denly, because they are not so strong as the tether that 
holds him back, and to the limit of which he has too soon 
arrived. 

* Kebla, among the eastern nations, signifies the point of the heavens 
toward which they directed their worship. The Jews did it toward the 
Temple at Jerusalem ; the Mohammedans toward Mecca ; the Sabians 
toward the meridian, and the Magians toward the rising sun. 1 Kings 
viii. 44, 48. Daniel vi. 10. Ps. v. 7, xxviii. 2. Jonah ii. 4. For the pro- 
per Kebla of Christians, see Heb. xii. 2. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

If he is not clear in his views as to the objective mani- 
festations, which he is to radiate on the way of the sinner, 
and lavish in his path before him, wonder not should 
he prove equally at fault, in the point and the persuasion 
of his subjective applications, urging the sinner to walk 
in it. If he cannot commend to him the love of Christ, 
not in the abstract, or in the ambiguity of a scarcely 
intelligible argument, but in the bold relief of effective 
testimony, saying, " He died for you, and that because 
he loved you; therefore hear and yovr soul shall live" 
it will be no miracle, if, in his after urgencies, he should 
ply him with a weak and misty and fruitless, although it 
may be with a loud-sounding and pompous, exhortation, 
to repent and believe the gospel. If his ideas of the influ- 
ence of the Spirit are technically wrong or greatly vague 
and dim, he will be sure to preach in a way palpably and 
badly different, from the way of the Spirit as demon- 
strated in his own oracles : and the difference will be seen 
by some, while it is felt by all. If his views of depravity 
are darkling and false, one way or the other ; if he be- 
lieves so much about it, as to impair the moral agency 
of its subject, or so little about it, as to excuse, reduce, 
or slight the awful malady of his state ; how poor, effete, 
or awry, will be his ministrations ! If he refer, awkwardly 
or in confusion, to the passive relations of the sinner, 
where God refers to his active ones ; if his statements 
are not spiritual" or moral, but mechanical and material- 
izing rather ; if he unskilfully counteracts, where he 
ought only to subserve, the influences of the Spirit ; or, 
makes in any way, natively, the wrong, instead of the 
right, impression ; or, if he truly knows not how to direct 
the sinner, in reply to the Great Question, What must 
I do to be saved ? there will be a proportionate failure, 
in reference to the great end of preaching ! conversions 
will be few and sickly ; as the shaking of an olive tree, 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

perhaps ; two or three berries in the top of the uppermost 
bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches 
thereof saith the Lord God of Israel ; instead of hundreds 
and thousands, covering the whole tree, richly rewarding 
the toil, and crowning the hopes, of cultivation. 

Now, we almost claim for our preacher, that he is, in 
these relations, a happy example of what ought to be ; 
we do not say or mean, a faultless paragon : but one 
whom the Spirit has taught to do the work of the Spirit ; 
who speaks with a simplicity and a directness, that well 
approximates our beau ideal of the demonstrations that 
ought to be made, in matter, in manner, in method, and 
in effect ! And let a heaven-sped success be the commen- 
tary and the attestation of our sentiment. It is said of 
Paul and Barnabas at Iconium, that they went both to- 
gether into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, 
that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the 
Greeks believed. There are great men in our times, who 
so speak that nobody believes. They may amuse, enter- 
tain, and even in a sort convince ; but where is the " great 
multitude" of converts ! The sovereignty of God, re- 
member, is excellent in working, as well as wonderful in 
counsel ; and is not exactly responsible for those, and 
their doings, who are plainly unskilful in the word of 
righteousness — and yet, who would rather confess almost 
any other thing, that the fact which others know, just 
as well, when they ingeniously and vainly strive to con- 
ceal it. 

The criterion of the preaching, which in our mind's 
eye is the standard of all proper aims, we thus define — 
What the words of Scripture, purely interpreted, clearly 
articulated, correctly understood, solemnly delivered, and 
powerfully urged ; the effect, which all this natively tends 
to produce, on the minds of the auditory, is that, in coin- 
cidence with which, and in it alone, may be identified 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

what deserves the name of good preaching, in proportion 
to its similitude to such a scriptural standard. 

In these remarks, we have not lost our object, if the 
reader shall keep his mind awake to the specimens of 
their reference, as he peruses them in the present volume. 
Nor will it be less, but rather more to the point, that the 
specimens are incidental, popular, informal, and inter- 
spersed throughout. 

5. Our last remark shall respect the value, in this day 
of the great fecundity of the press, of religion and truth 
constantly mingled in all our ephemeral literature. The 
great ideas of religion and truth, that may be safely called 
fundamental, are mainly the following, in the order as Ave 
arrange them : 

The Being of God. 

The accountableness of man as his creature. 

The Christian revelation. 

The immortality of the soul and the resurrection of 
the body. 

The sinful and lost estate of the total species. 

The mediation and offices of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The work of the Spirit. 

Personal piety, initial, progressive, and complete. 

Glorification. 

Eternal confirmation and beatitude. 
And who can doubt the reasonableness of not forget- 
ting these ten incomparable things ! Well, every readable 
and sound sermon is a valuable contribution to their 
perpetuity, as well as their diffusion. And what if the 
belief in God were erased from the moral consciousness 
of the community? All related truths would perish from 
the earth ; as would rush the planets into ruin, if the sun 
were plucked from his immoveable centre or annihilated 
there. There could remain nothing in this fatherless 
world, and nothing in the future, to attract our desires or 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

attach us to existence. But — I say the rest in the better 
language of a great preacher, who as a writer is more 
distinguished, especially now that he speaks to mortals 
only in his published works.* 

"The idea of the Supreme Being has this peculiar 
property ; that, as it admits of no substitute, so, from the 
first moment it is formed, it is capable of continual growth 
and enlargement. God himself is immutable ; but our 
conception of his character is continually receiving fresh 
accessions, is continually growing more extended and re- 
fulgent, by having transferred to it new elements of beauty 
and goodness ; by attracting to itself, as a centre, what- 
ever bears the impress of dignity, order, or happiness. 
It borrows splendor from all that is fair, subordinates to 
itself all that is great, and sits enthroned on the riches of 
the universe." 

We think our publication will subserve an end at once 
so great and so good ; and our hope is also that ends 
allied, though inferior, may be coincidently answered. 
With this, we commend it to the benediction of God, that 
he would use it to his own glory and the good of souls ; 
while we commit it humbly to the good pleasure of his 
glorious providence. And may these introductory re- 
flections, written — it may be — too venturously, and under 
stress of time too little, and of urgency too great, to do 
them better, or adequately to review or correct them, be 
found at least not impeding, if haply they little assist, the 
great design, for which we preach, and pray, and live, 
and were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 

I may add, that the author of the sermons has no re- 
sponsibility or knowledge, in reference to what, in the 
fraternal spirit, we have so freely written respecting them. 
For this, he, we know, and the Christian community, we 
trust, will make all liberal and proper allowance. 

* Robert Hall. 
3 



SERMON I. 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 



ft Can two walk together ; except they be agreed ?" — 
Amos iii. 3. 

Order is the first law of Heaven's empire. In the 
material world, God has secured it by absolute power. 
In the world of mind, his authority has enjoined it. 
And in the next state of human existence, his omnipo- 
tent justice will enforce it. In the present world, God 
has simply enjoined order ; and if we obey not the 
great laws of moral harmony, we make our own hap- 
piness impossible. 

Let us descend from principles to fact, and see, that 
if two are not agreed, they cannot walk together. The 
enjoyments of friendship demand a harmony of senti- 
ment ; the classifications of political parties, and all effi- 
cient party movements, whether good or bad, demand it. 
How can a child be properly trained by two parents, 
whose views differ on every important point of intellect 
and moral education ? What efficiency can there be 
in that commercial house, whose partners are agreed 
about no one of the great principles of trade ? 

To these statements it might be objected, that Chris- 
tians and infidels united together in the reformation of 
the Church and the overthrow of Papacy. They did ; 



28 SERMON I. 

but it must be remarked, that they walked together, so 
long as they were agreed in the simple object of rejecting 
the political assumptions of the Roman pontiff Their 
object in this union was, to burst their common fetters ; 
but no sooner had this been effected, and each resumed 
his own individuality, than they clashed and separated. 
While agreed, they walked together, but no longer. 

The text is part of a solemn reproof addressed to the 
Israelites. They thought, that, because they had been 
taken into covenant with God, and had been careful in 
observing the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual, God 
walked with them, approved of, and blessed them. 
But the prophet, in the name of Jehovah, here presents 
this great principal : — • You must agree with me, and 
then I will walk with you ; — the union between us must 
be a moral union.' He makes a direct appeal to their 
judgments, and consciences, in this language, and vir- 
tually demands whether they are willing to accord with 
him in feeling, and to co-operate with him. If not, he 
could not approve them. " How can two walk togeth- 
er, except they be agreed V 

To us this is a subject of the highest importance on 
earth. This earthly scene is to pass away, the world 
and its interests are to perish ; but the soul and its 
moral affinities, — the soul and its desires.— the soul and 
its habits formed on earth must abide and survive the 
wreck of matter. We may well ask ourselves, — '• With 
whom, with what party, are my moral affinities and 
alliances ? — with whom am I agreed V If we are not 
agreed with God, we cannot walk in his counsels, nor 
beneath his smile. I speak to you, children ! and ask 
you ; — ' Are you agreed with God V Perhaps you do 
not understand me. I will let a little girl, of whom I 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 29 

have heard, explain to you my meaning.* " I speak to 
you, young man ! now, in the spring-time of life, at a 
period in which all around is fascinating and deceiving, 
at a period in which you are about to form associa- 
tions and connexions for life, and, perhaps, to take 
your moral position for eternity ; and I urge you, first of 
all, to agree with God, that God may agree with you. 

How mysterious is the indifference, with which men 
regard God's approbation, or disapprobation ! It is 
manifest that such indifference cannot be the result of 
serious reflection. It cannot be, that the man, who has 
closely contemplated his position in the moral universe, 
his transient existence on earth, and his fearful interest 
in eternity, has risen from such contemplation, deter- 
mined to cast aside all concern for the favor of God, to 
make the least of his cares the care of his welfare be- 
yond the hour of death. No, it. is a mysterious, irra- 
tional fascination ; it is the fearful consequence and 
proof of apostacy from God. My fellow-men ! it is 
not reasonable for you, nor for me, to regard with in- 
difference the question, — l How does God esteem me, 
and what is my actual position with regard to him ? Is 
there moral union and harmony, on which an eternal 
friendship may be based?' This is the important ques- 
tion, which I would assist each one to answer in his 
own case. It is true, that the infinite Being conceals 

* She was greatly distressed to find herself a sinner against God, 
Her pious mother had encouraged and promoted her convictions of sin. 
But, one morning, she came running into the parlor, smiling with de- 
light. Her good mother feared that she had become a trifler with serious 
things, and exclaimed : " Why, my dear! have you grieved away the 
Spirit of God ?"— " No, my dear mamma ! I have made up with God." 
She understood exactly what God meant when he says : "Be ye recon- 
ciled to God." 

3* 



30 SERMON I. 

from us the brightness of his presence, and neither daz- 
zles the eye of the body, nor overwhelms the feelings 
of the mind, by presenting himself to our senses in all 
the symbols of his majesty and glory. Yet there are 
manifestations of his perfections and of his feelings, so 
clear, so indubitable, so palpable, that we may readily 
determine whether ours be a state of enmity, of indif- 
ference, or of union with our blessed Creator and Sove- 
reign or not. 

The principle by which this investigation may be 
made, is simple and obvious. You may know as readi- 
ly your sympathy with, or aversion to, the feelings of 
an absent person, as of one present, provided he have 
made expression of his feelings on any one point. And 
again ; you may as readily test your sympathies, or 
aversions, on moral subjects as on any other. There 
is no difficulty in testing your musical taste, and com- 
paring it with another person's, by ascertaining your 
feelings on hearing the same piece of music. And, if 
on every experiment you find, that what pleases one 
displeases another, you trace it to a diversity of taste. 
Two persons examine that masterpiece of painting — 
" the Last supper," by Leonardo. The one admires, the 
other disapproves ;- because one is a man of unculti- 
vated taste and unpractised eye, and finds no beauty in 
its faded colors, while the other is capable of appre- 
ciating its highest beauties. The one is looking for 
dazzling color, and soon grows fatigued ; the other 
stands enchanted, and retires with reluctance. Here is 
evidently no affinity of taste. So it is with landscape. 
One gazes with delight upon the gentle slope, the ver- 
dant fields, the retired vale, the winding stream ; 
every object, by which he is surrounded, presenting to 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 31 

his eye new beauties, and furnishing fresh delight to 
the mind ; whilst another perceives in all this nothing 
to attract or charm. Here is evidently a wide differ- 
ence in taste. And again ; concerning those whom 
we see not, but whose sentiments live in their works ; 
we can readily determine whether they and we are 
agreed, and whether we could : or could not walk to- 
gether. Some of the hideous images of Egyptian idol- 
atry are now in our museums. These were once the 
admiration of thousands as master-works of art. We 
look at them with disgust. Here is a want of intel- 
lectual agreement. But we have also some of the 
matchless specimens of Grecian taste. We admire 
these, and feel, as we contemplate them, that we should 
have found the highest intellectual gratification in the 
society of the men who made, and of the people who 
admired those figures. But they are more than speci- 
mens of art ; they were the objects of a blind religious 
veneration. As we consider them in this light, our ad- 
miration gives place to disgust and contempt ; and we 
feel an utter antipathy to the character and sentiments 
of a people, whose intellectual elevation is but a light, 
which throws in deeper shade their moral degradation. 
It is, then, by contemplating some common object, that 
we test our harmony, or want of harmony, with others 
on any subject. If you^ my hearers ! have taken up 
the subject of religion with an earnestness in any mea- 
sure corresponding with its magnitude, then you have 
discovered the truth of what I am about to state. If 
any of you have not, I shall entreat a patient attention 
to my statement and proofs. 

My statement is — that 

Man, as unconverted, has no moral union with God. 



32 SER M ON I. 

He sympathizes not with God ; walks not, co-operates 
not with him. Between God and these, his creatures, 
there is no common taste, there are no common princi- 
ples, no common ends, nor plans. 

Let us begin our proof of this, by observing God and 
man, in the exercise of love in its two branches, com- 
placency, and benevolence. God loves all excellence, 
He has said in his word, " To this man will I look, 
even to him that is poor an<J of a contrite spirit." Hu- 
mility, faith, penitence, the spirit of prayer, — these are 
the features of character in God's sight, of greatest 
price. But it is not so with the world. Take, then, 
the two objects ; on the one side, a man of true piety, 
with no other recommendation ; and on the other, a 
man with every thing admirable, but destitute of piety. 
The one is Lazarus at the rich man's gate. Look at 
him with all the offensiveness of his exterior ; destitute 
of wealth, of talents, of friends, a cripple, a beggar ; and 
yet he is a man of piety. His views of sin are as God's 
views. His sympathies are with God's ; the glory of 
God is the great object of his love ; he rejoices in his 
low estate, because God has chosen it for him ; while 
others are called to glorify God by action, he rejoices, 
that he can do it by suffering in obscurity and con- 
tempt. Such a man is dear to God. He may live in 
a dungeon, or a cave, where you would not deign to 
visit him ; yet that man is one of God's jewels, watched 
over by angels, who are eager for the commission, to 
break the rude shell that encases it, and bear it away 
to shine in the Savior's crown. Come, look at this 
object, and ask yourself, — c Is my heart agreed with 
God's in this case ? Do I love piety wherever I see it? 
Do I love it for its own sake ? God does ; and if I do 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 33 

not, then our moral tastes do not harmonize, — we 
are not agreed. He would pass by thrones and senates 
to comfort that broken heart, and wipe away one tear 
from that eye ; Gabriel would fly from the nether 
spheres to lift the cup to his thirsting lips ; but I would 
pass by on the other side, and hasten to more conge- 
nial society. Then I am out of harmony with heaven V 
Yes, here is a common object of moral contemplation, 
which can as well determine the state of the heart, as 
a picture, or landscape, or piece of music, can deter- 
mine the tastes of two men. And what of your man of 
taste, polish, science, station, affluence, influence, who 
lives not for God, loves not, fears not, obeys not, praises 
not God ? He favors you with his society and his 
friendship. You not only admire, you delight in him. 
And, even if he utters a few irreverential expressions 
concerning religion, and carelessly employs the sacred 
name of Jehovah, that does not alienate your heart ; 
him you admire, in his society is your chief delight. 
God does not admire him, but "is angry with the 
wicked every day." 

The selection of our companions, and the ground of 
that selection, if we would examine it closely, would 
perfectly expose to us our character as it is in the eyes 
of God. If we choose the pious, and say with Israel's 
sweet singer, "in them is all my delight ;" and if we 
choose them on account of their religion, so far we 
have evidence of our reconciliation to God. Says John, 
" we know that we have passed from death unto life, 
because we love the brethren." We admit that piety 
is now, in most cases, associated with much, that is not 
admirable in itself ; and yet there is true piety on earth, 



34 SERMON I. 

and enough to test the nature and tendency of our af 
fections. 

In the exercise, then, of their complacency, men while 
unconverted, select different objects from God ; in the 
exercise of their benevolence they choose not as Goc 
chooses. God loves all his creatures, because they are 
capable of happiness, and he loves them, as capable oi 
happiness. But men, generally, make a very narrow 
circle for the play of their benevolent affections. Sc 
far as it is restricted by a want of knowledge of othei 
beings, or by an inability to conceive of and sympathize 
with the miseries of those whom we have never seen 
it is a mark of our finite power, and not of our want 
of holiness. But so far as it arises from selfish indif- 
ference to the welfare of others, so far we feel not as 
God feels. Is there, moreover, a man, in the circle of 
your acquaintance, who has no share in your sympa 
thies ? God loves that man, not because he may be 
good, or grateful, or obedient, but because he is a man 
endowed with all the moral and immortal sensibilities 
and capacities of human nature. 

It is often said, that no man can love his enemies 
Then no man can dwell with God, no man can wear 
God's moral image ; for that is one of its striking fea 
tures. Suppose a man to have interfered with you in 
your business, to have stood in the way of your worldly 
prosperity, or to have slandered you to others ; do you 
not love him, notwithstanding all this ? God loves him, 
although he may be still his enemy ; the absence of your 
love to him, proves that you are not agreed with God. 

But we can press this matter still further. God not ! 
only loves his creatures, — all his creatures, even his 
enemies, — but with an intensity astonishing to the very 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 35 

^els of heaven. And his great desire is for their 

'conversion and eternal salvation. Here are, then, two 
points of comparison ; those interests of man for which 
'tie has the highest regard ; and the degree of his re- 
gard. To testify the extent and strength of his com- 
!p3assion for sinners, God gave his own Son; for, it is 
i said, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
Degotten Son," &c. Not only does he love his ene- 
mies, but he sacrifices his Son to do them good. Who, 
;hen, has a moral union and affinity with him, whose 
* rreat name is Love ? And for what is this great sacri- 
fice ? for what the mission of the Spirit 7 for what the 
i word of Revelation ? It is all to secure the conversion 
fund everlasting salvation of men. Upon this great 
Work the whole heart of the blessed God is set. But 
i say, if, to some of you, this work does not often appear 
1 ibsolutely contemptible ? Say, if, when amidst the gay 
.overs of pleasure and votaries of fashion, you would 
jiot have felt a revolting of spirit, a cordial contempt 
or one, who should have commenced talking to you 
w the great work of salvation by Jesus Christ, of the 
mportance of efforts to turn the attention of this people 
;o the interests of their souls, before it be for ever too 
i ate 1 But if you have not felt contempt, have you not 
i complete indifference? The heart of everyone is 
"on some object, which seems to him great ; it may be 
[pleasure, profit, honor, ease, in some of their forms. 
'But if your supreme desire be not that of extending the 
:ause of Christ, you are not agreed with God ; for 
upon this one great and glorious plan his heart is su- 
premely fixed. For that, the Son of God came to 
sufferings, shame, and death. Your indifference to this 
i vast object, your absorption in the interests of time, 



36 SERMON I. 

your unwillingness to make sacrifices for the salvation 
of your own or others' souls, your little, narrow, selfish 
schemes, prove that you are not agreed with God. 

We may test the condition of our affections by an- 
other object — the law of God. To him it is as dear as 
the happiness of his creatures and the honor of his own 
name. If you find in it one command too holy, one 
requirement too exact, or one precept superfluous, then 
you esteem it not as God does. I will not now regard 
all that is implied in an aversion to any one' precept of 
the divine law. We are here simply concerned to see 
that what God approves, man disapproves. His wisdom, 
equity, and goodness framed that law in all its strict- 
ness, purity, and extent. Not a command nor a pro- 
hibition of it expresses else than his heart approves. 
Even the tremendous denunciations of it, too, are 
approved by God. If then its requirements please not, 
if its threatenings seem too severe to any one ; with 
such a one God is not agreed. 

Another object tests the heart ; the Son of God 
manifested in human nature. In all the predictions 
of the patriarchs and prophets ; in all the ancient types 
of the Mosaic ritual, and the shadowy representations 
of the former economy ; in the mission of John the 
forerunner, we can see that Christ, in all ages, has 
been, as he was announced at his baptism, the only 
begotten and well beloved Son of God. This was the 
testimony borne to him on the banks of Jordan by his 
heavenly Father — " This is my beloved Son in whom 
I am well pleased !" — in whom I am well pleased. I 
now,, turn your thoughts to him. I would present him 
in his humble cradle, in his holy life, in his severe 
reproofs of sin and unbelief, in the moment when he 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 37 

chilled the zeal of that self-complacent young ruler, 
who thought himself almost ready for heaven. I pre- 
sent him hung up on the ignominious Roman gibbet, 
expiring beneath the contempt of earth and frown of 
heaven. I present him coming in the clouds to judge 
the world, and to separate men into two great classes, 
by a principle, which shall pour contempt on the dis- 
tinctions that have gratified the pride of the human 
"heart ; I ask you in all this — • "What think you of 
Christ V God says — " I am well pleased." Does 
your heart respond — < He is to me all in all V God 
says that he has " raised him from the dead, and set 
him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far 
above all principality and power, and might and do- 
minion, and every name that is named, not only in 
this world, but also in that which is to come; and 
hath put all things under his feet," — " and given him 
a name, which is above every name ; that at the name 
of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue 
should confess." Does your heart thus exalt him ? If 
we have a common heart, or moral sentiment, with Je- 
hovah, then we must love Christ as he does. When- 
ever the gospel is faithfully preached, Jesus Christ is 
manifestly set forth crucified for man's redemption. 
And under these manifestations, how many are totally 
indifferent ! Some may have been aroused to a sense 
of their entire dependence on Christ, of their immediate 
and pressing need of an interest in his mediation. 
But how transient was the impression ! Yes, in that 
solemn hour God presented to you the great medium 
of reconciliation to himself, showed you where he 
could meet you without compromising his justice or 
his truth, held the promise of pardon down from his 

4 



38 SERMON I. 

throne, showed you the covenant of peace, signed and 
sealed in the blood of the Lamb slain for the redemp- 
tion of the world ; — in that solemn hour God was near 
in a sense more real, more important, infinitely more 
important and delightful than human thought can 
conceive. Yes, there, my hearer ! — and you remem- 
ber perhaps the hour — there your soul weighed earth 
and heaven in the balance of its affections ; there in 
strong debate you canvassed the claims of sin and holi- 
ness ; there you were almost persuaded to be a Chris- 
tian ; and yet — awful thought ! — you there decided 
that your heart could not choose Christ and renounce 
its idols. 

Here are then objects enough presented for the appli- 
cation of our principle and of our test. One is Piety ; 
considered by God as the only lovely object on earth ; 
piety, considered by the world actually, practically, 
daily and hourly, when exhibited in life, as either con- 
temptible, or as not equal in interest to intellect, to 
wealth, to rank, or other adventitious appendages to 
man. God loves, God walks with the men of humili- 
ty, of faith, of prayer, of zeal for his honor and. kingdom. 
God loves them for their piety, for that which distin- 
guishes them from the world. Men generally either 
disregard them, or esteem them on account of other 
qualities and circumstances. We have selected again 
— the Law of God. When God beholds that, as an 
expression of his will, as adapted to make the universe 
of intelligent beings one vast, happy community ; when 
he beholds its perfect symmetry, its purity, its clear re- 
presentation of his rights and of his creatures' duties, 
he must love it. And there are a few men who can say 
Avith intelligent sincerity— "the law is holy, and the 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 39 

commandment holy, and just, and good ;" " how I love 
thy law, it is my meditation all the day." But alas ! 
there are only a few men of that spirit in the human 
family. 

The majority of men treat the whole law of God 
with such indifference, that they think it not worth 
their while to search into its precepts, either to know 
what they are, or whether they comply with them. 
We have contemplated also the souls of men in their 
inappreciable worth, to see, on the one hand, how earn- 
estly God loves them, at how high a price he under- 
takes their salvation ; and on the other hand, that men 
generally care little for the mass of mankind, love not 
their enemies, and care nothing for the undying inter- 
ests of the soul. Conversion, pardon, sanctification, 
resurrection, justification at the bar of God ; — these are 
matters of moonshine with the busy, the gay, the learn- 
ed, the wise, the mighty world. The last of its con- 
cerns is for the promotion of vital, soul-transforming, 
soul-saving religion ; the smallest of its sacrifices are 
for it ; the least degree of its sympathies is with him, 
who weeps over man's apostacy, who prays for the ex- 
ercise of God's recovering grace, and for the mighty 
energies of the Holy Spirit. 

The last object we presented was — the Bright, the 
Morning Star— the Sun of Righteousness, who has 
arisen on the world with healing in his beams, — the 
meek, the spotless Lamb of God, who bore the sins of 
erring man upon his guiltless soul. We have heard 
the voice of the Highest saying — " This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased;" and, "What think 
ye of Christ?" We have heard the world saying, — 
'We may want to fly to him in a dying hour; but, un- 



40 SERMON I. 

til forced to do it, we wish not to take his yoke upon 
us ; we have seen neither form nor comeliness in him, 
that we should desire him.' 

And, my fellow-mortal ! is it you, whose heart, whose 
conduct, with so stern an emphasis, have thus replied ? 
Then I must carry the subject one step further, and 
ask you, How " can two walk together, except they be 
agreed ?" If it is determined in your own mind that 
you are not agreed with God, how then can he confer 
upon you any of the blessings of his children ? He 
may command his sun to shine and his rain to descend 
upon you ; for that he does to the evil and unthankful. 
But does that satisfy you? Can you live with the crea- 
ture deprived of the Creator? If God but gives you 
the bounties of his providence, are you satisfied to live 
without him, without his love, without the peculiar 
blessings which he confers on his children. But he 
cannot confer these blessings on those, who have nei- 
ther obeyed his law, nor become reconciled to him 
through the gospel. It would bring reproach upon his 
character as moral Governor ; for that character he 
must sustain as well as that of Father. You make it 
impossible to be blessed. How can God delight in you ? 
What shall he delight in ? Your external advantages? 
They have been possessed by some of the darkest and 
vilest beings, that ever bore the name of man. Shall 
he delight in your intellect, your science, your accom- 
plishments ? Have you more than Satan had on the 
morning of his rebellion? But they could not bribe 
nor dazzle the perfect eye of Eternal Purity and Jus- 
tice. God delights in the men, who, where they have 
disobeyed his law, honor it by all the amends in their 
power ; — repentance for their sin, and the acceptance 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 41 

of a gratuitous pardon through Jesus Christ. God de- 
lights in them, whose hearts harmonize in sympathy 
with his, concerning the great scheme of recovering 
this lost race to allegiance, and holiness, and heaven. 
God delights in those, whose delight is in his Son. 
Hear how the apostle Paul, whom God loved, expresses 
himself concerning the law of God : — I delight in the 
law of God after the inward man, although I find a 
constant rebellion in part of my nature against it. He 
perpetually took the side of the law against himself. 
Hear the adorations of the heavenly host in whom God 
delights : 






" Worthy the Lamb that died, they cry, 
To be exalted thus." 



Now if your heart has, in all these points, no sym- 
pathy with God, how can he delight in you? How can 
he take you to heaven? The righteous are taken there 
in order to make their communion with God more in- 
timate, perfect, and beatific. But communion of soul, 
to be intimate and delightful, must be intelligent and 
cordial on those points, which both parties deem of the 
highest moment. But if you have no such fellowship 
with God here, what will you do in heaven? If you 
have found no delight in the imperfect communion 
which prayer affords, what will you do in heaven ? It 
seems to me, my fellow men ! you pronounce the ver- 
dict on your own souls. Without a change of heart, 
there is no advantage in your going to heaven. If you 
go there, it will not be to have communion with God 
and with his Christ. A heaven without God, — a hea- 
ven without the Savior ! God will gather around him- 
self the faithful spirits, who have contended for his 
honor and interests in the various parts of his king- 

4* 



42 SERMON I. 

dom. But what will you do among them ? Will you 
bring the history of your anxiety for worldly good, 
your toils and cares for earthly interests, to entertain 
the sons of light, the valiant champions of truth and 
holiness ? God will gather them that have been faith- 
ful to his cause, that they may co-operate with him in 
still greater plans. But what will you do there, who 
have never sympathized with God's cause on earth ? 
How "can two walk together ? except they be agreed?" 
Then there is no fellowship with God, no co-operation 
with him, no rapturous enjoyment of his presence, his 
character, his plans, his service. 

Heaven is constantly thought of, under the vague 
impression of a happy spot. But think of a circle of 
friends, pure, refined, intelligent, enjoying exquisite de- 
light in each other's society. Imagine one of utterly 
uncongenial taste and habits, longing to be admitted to 
that circle, under the impression that merely being 
there would make him happy. You know he is in 
error; but not in as great an error as they are in, who 
think of heaven as a happy place, and are anxious to get 
there, but have no anxiety for immediate and perfect 
preparation for it. No ; if you are not agreed with 
God, he will not bring you to " his presence," where is 
H fulness of joy," nor to " his right hand," where are 
« pleasures for evermore." If not agreed with God, 
you cannot dwell for ever with those who are. No ; 
if you are not now walking with God, we are prepar- 
ing for an endless separation. You may occupy the 
same place in the house of God with his children ; 
you may perform the same external duties ; no human 
eye may be able to discover a difference between you 
and them ; and yet, being unreconciled to God, as time 



AGREEMENT WITH GOD. 43 

rolls onward, and as eternity approaches, you are di- 
verging further and further from them. The thought 
is solemn. Life is solemn, inasmuch as it is the seed- 
time of eternity ; its threshold, its type, its model. To- 
day we may take you by the hand ; to-day we may 
lead you to the foot of the cross ; to-day we may weep 
over you, and express to you our strong anxieties ; to- 
morrow you may die, and we may never, never, never 
again meet. Pilgrim to eternity ! if your heart is not 
right with God, you are going to an eternal distance 
from him and his saints. And are you willing to be 
eternally separated from God and the good ? Suppose 
you were called to-day to bid an everlasting farewell to 
your pious relatives and friends, to Christ and his 
Church ; would it be without a sigh ? And yet it may 
be so. 

I know this is a theme on which few occupy their 
thoughts. But it remains in all its truth and awful im- 
portance, that, under the dispensation of mercy admin- 
istered by the Son of God, men are taking their posi- 
tions for eternity. There are two contending interests 
in the universe. Hell and its legions are ranged on the 
one side — God and his angels on the other. By phy- 
sical force, the controversy might soon be ended. But 
this is the department where God's greatest glory is seen 
in the enlistment of moral force alone. Oh what a 
theatre of sublime interest is earth, where every thing 
is yet undecided, but rapidly settling for eternity ! The 
inhabitants of heaven are immutably ranged under the 
banner of the Prince of light. Fallen angels and dam- 
ned spirits look for no reprieve, no change. Dark hate 
and fell despair are their chains. But man's fate is 
yet undecided. His destiny is pending, and God is 



44 S E R M O N I. 

now persuading ; for moral power consists in persua- 
sion. And generally, it is a " still small voice," easily- 
stifled, easily unheeded. Hark ! it sounds in thy breast, 
it comes from thy Father's throne, from thy bleeding 
friend, from the Spirit of life : — l Wilt thou be agreed 
with God V 






SERMON II. 



man's natural enmity to god. 



" The carnal mind is enmity against God" — 
Rom. viii. 7. 

If we divest this sentiment of its technical form, and 
express it in the language of common conversation, its 
dreadful import must strike the most inattentive hearer. 
The Bible is technical, because it is the Book of heav- 
enly science, and, like every other book of science, must 
employ many phrases in a sense peculiar to itself. 
This has frequently been a theme even of ridicule to 
the enemies of its doctrines. But a mere verbal con- 
troversy is always of minor importance. We discover 
with painful interest, the reality and extent of an oppo- 
sition, more serious, because it is to the truth of our text. 
All over the world, and in every period of human his- 
tory, men have hated, not the fact here stated, but the 
declaration of that fact. Men are willing, that it shall 
be true that they hate God, but they are not willing to 
read it, nor to hear it. There is an almost universal 
reluctance, to put among the axioms, or the established 
points of religious belief; the truth, that the human 
mind is opposed to its Creator and Savior. At present 
we shall endeavor to convince those, who admit the 
Bible to be an infallible teacher. We shall allow there- 



46 SERMON II. 

fore, in these discussions, no other place for reasoning, 
than to ascertain, whether, or not we understand the 
written Word. If God says it, we must believe it. 

Has God then said, that the human heart is opposed 
to Him ? So we understand the text. It is clear that 
the human heart, in some state, is here said to be, " at 
enmity against God. " The only remaining question, 
then, is. whether or not that state is the universal, nat- 
ural condition of man. It is, in other words, whether 
or not every unconverted man hates God. We under- 
stand the text to assert this, because the whole course 
of the argument in the context consists, in contrasting 
the two different states of human nature, as renewed 
and unrenewed. But the argument from the examina- 
tion of the record, although more conclusive and satis- 
factory to a student of the Bible than any other, is 
neither so interesting nor so striking to those who are 
not inclined to pursue that study. We therefore take 
up another line of argument, and lead you to positions 
where this dreadful truth so glares upon the eye, that 
the understanding must embrace it, despite the revolt- 
ings and struggles of self-respect and of carnal desire. 
We readily make, however, this concession to human 
nature ; — we admit that men generally appear to be 
sincere, in denying that they hate God. 

We meet, then, on the threshold, the apparent oppo- 
sition to our doctrine, of all human consciousness and 
experience. We maintain an apparently extravagant 
truth, in the face, not only of what men believe, but 
even of what they feel. We appear in the bold posi- 
tion, of telling men that, concerning themselves, 
which they know to be false. Ask any number of men 
this question — 'Do you hate God?' The reply, in 



man's natural enmity to god. 47 

almost every case, will be made with perfect sincerity — 
' No, I love Him.' And the answer will often be forti- 
fied with this argument — l Why should I hate the 
Being that gives me all my blessings V It is this 
supposed consciousness, that fortifies men, so securely, 
against the testimony of God. Now it is important to 
understand precisely, on the one hand what it is of 
which men are conscious, and on the other what the 
text asserts. Few men see in their hearts any thing - , 
like hatred of the character of God ; they see no anger, 
no rankling, no opposition against Him, in positive ex- 
ercise. Nor does the text assert, that this hatred is, in 
all, a present, positive, outbreaking emotion, or disposi- 
tion. It simply declares, that the attachment to forbid- 
den objects and pursuits, which characterizes all hearts 
naturally, involves in itself enmity against God. Our 
text does not assert, that sinful dispositions have yet 
ripened to their full malignity, nor that man has yet 
seen to what lengths they will carry him. It simply, 
and only declares, that man has committed himself to 
the ranks and work of rebellion ; that he is, in reality, 
an enemy of his God, although that enmity may yet 
be undeveloped in its more terrible forms. It asserts, 
that man has begun a career, which will, if unchecked, 
plant him beneath the banner of rebel angels — an eter- 
nal, uncompromising enemy of heaven's glorious King. 
To the proof of this awful truth we advance. 

We see enough, and we intend to show enough, to 
convince the world that men need but a change of cir- 
cumstances, to develope forms and degrees of wicked- 
ness, which would now be as incredible to them, as was 
Hazael's predicted depravity to him. See you that 
statesman, amiable, courteous, generous ? He lives in 



48 SERMON II. 

perfect amity with all his neighborhood. Ask him, if 
he is conscious of enmity towards a human being. His 
sincere response is, — 'Not towards one ; — no, not even 
to that rival in the career of ambition ;' (who, it must 
be observed, has never yet crossed his path.) Return 
to the place of his residence after many years, and hear 
the village stories of anger, reviling, and finally of the 
fatal duel between these former friends ; and see 
the lasting hatred which yet burns even in their off- 
spring. What has kindled this strange fire in that 
once peaceful bosom? Where is now the firm con- 
sciousness, that once induced the frank and earnest 
disavowei of enmity ? Alas ! a change of situation, 
and circumstances, changed, not the man, but the exer- 
cise of his selfishness ; and it was by this change, 
brought out in forms hitherto unknown to himself, and 
toothers. Fellow man! thou art ignorant of thyself ; 
thy heart is an enigma to thee ; God knows it, and God 
has given His testimony concerning it. Thou art to 
live through many, — many changes. Thou mayest 
be confident in thyself ; but He, who knows the end 
from the beginning, has declared dreadful things con- 
cerning thee. And time and eternity, with their in- 
conceivable changes, may yet make thee what if now 
told thee, would force the exclamation — " What ! is thy 
servant a dog, that he should do this thing ?" 

Man is the enemy of God in his selfishness. He be- 
lieves it not, because he knows not who, or what Goa 
is ; or, because he will not compare himself with what 
he does know of God, to see how he regards Him. 
And the more fully God unveils His character, His 
government, His plans, the more decided and the more 
dreadful will be the enmity, felt and exercised. Let us 



49 

look a little further into this very consciousness of man, 
that seems to contradict the words of God, and behold 
therein the strong confirmation of our doctrine. 

I. Man hates the character of God as a Lawgiver. 
If there is any prerogative of His nature, for which Je- 
hovah will contend with the power of His throne, it is 
that of making laws for His creatures. And if there 
be, on the other hand, any strength in man's attach- 
ments, any firmness in his purposes, any ardor in his 
pursuits, any determined opposition to that, which in- 
terferes with the independence of his will, or the ac- 
complishment of his cherished plans, then is uncon- 
verted, selfish man an enemy of God the Legislator. 
It is true, that this rebellion against the Divine govern- 
ment, this opposition to the Supreme will, does not 
manifest itself in the same forms, as rebellion against the 
various kinds of moral government in human society ; 
and this is one great source of deception. The feelings, 
which, in the one case, are hidden, in the other are 
strong and prominent ; not that the hatred and opposi- 
tion, are less real to the Divine government, but that 
the human government presents itself more obtrusively 
to its subjects. There are, however, occurrences in 
every individual's life, which, if properly observed, 
would echo back a fearful testimony to the truth of the 
Bible. It is in incidents considered trifling, that man 
shows his character ; and he, who has accustomed him- 
self to observe the incidents of human life as reflectors 
of the human heart, can read, in the passing events of 
every hour, the indexes of all that constitutes that heart. 
Reflect on an occcurrence like the following. 

There were, in the metropolis of one of the United 
States, two young men full of glowing health and elas- 

5 



50 SERMON II. 

tic spirits. They selected, for a drive, the very hour oi 
a beautiful Sabbath morning, in which the devout had 
just commenced the worship of their God. They were 
urging a spirited steed down one of the leading streets, 
and securing the general attention ; but in the very 
height, hilarity, and speed of their movement, they were 
suddenly brought to a mortifying stand by a strong 
iron chain drawn entirely across the street in front of a 
church. It need scarcely be said, that they felt the 
emotions of indignation and hatred against the chain, 
and against the authority, that threw it across their 
path. They had been conscious of no such hatred be- 
fore ; it was a new emotion, drawn out by new circum- 
stances. But God himself had thrown another chain 
across their path, stronger than iron or adamant. He 
had uttered, with his own awful voice, from Sinai, 
" Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." He had 
interposed his own awful authority to prevent these 
young men from " doing their own pleasure" on that 
day. And why, then, did they not feel the same hatred 
rising against this obstruction to the gratification oi 
their desires ? This is a question of great importance ; 
and though the answer is brief, it is worthy of deep 
reflection : — Because it was a moral, and not a physical 
chain — because it made their pleasure ivrong, but not 
impossible — because it consisted, for the present, only 
in a precept and a threatened penalty. Had Jehovah 
met them when sallying from their dwellings, — had He 
laid His mighty hand upon their puny arms, and held 
them back from their career of sinful pleasure, — had 
He sounded in their ear his awful threaten ings at every 
step of their progress, — had He shown that, for every 
moment of pleasure, He would visit upon them ages of 



5i 

wrath, — then they might have found, that they hated 
Jehovah, as they hated that iron chain. But no ; His 
holy law lay unobtrusive in their neglected Bible ; it 
troubled them not, it checked them not ; and hence 
they felt no present opposition to it. Jehovah bade 
His sun to shine upon them, and was sending the tide 
of life, in gladdening pulses, through their frames ; and 
they could exclaim, with entire security, " Why should 
I hate Him ? He does me nothing but good." 

Let the awful truth be repeated ; — man has staked 
his happiness against the authority of the eternal Law- 
giver. And it is a fact, to which the world should 
attend with the profoundest interest, that, just as much 
as man loves his own happiness, just so strongly must 
he, if unconverted, sooner or later, hate the legislative 
rights, character, and acts of Jehovah. This hatred 
sometimes breaks out on a broad scale, and u the kings 
of the earth set themselves against the Lord and 
against His Anointed, saying, Let us break His bands 
asunder, and cast away His cords from us." And 
there has probably never been the age, or nation, in 
which the men, who have boldly and urgently asserted 
the law of God in its length and breadth, have not 
drawn upon themselves the persecution, either of ridi- 
cule, of hatred, or of death. Which of the stern 
prophets was not hated and sought for as a beast of 
prey, even among the Jews ? Who is the man in this 
age or nation, that dares to urge the law of God, and 
its penalty of endless death, on his contemporaries, that 
will not be called by some one or more of the various 
consecrated titles of puritan, bigot, and fanatic ? It must 
be so, as long as the human heart is true to its own con- 
stitution. If it seeks its own gratification as the end of 



52 SERMON II. 

its existence, if its whole plan of happiness is based on 
that, then it must hate that holy law, which enforces 
upon it an end so different, by an authority so dreadful, 
and under a penalty so awful. 

There are two ways, in which men have always en- 
deavored to avoid the painful discovery of this truth. 
The one is, to deny the revealed character of a law so 
pure, and holy, and difficult, and contradictory to our 
passions. If a man can fix his foot firmly on that 
ground, he will of course discover no opposition to the 
Lawgiver, because he sees no clashing between the will 
of God and his own will. The other course is, to ad- 
mit the existence of the law, but on various grounds to 
deny the execution of the penalty. But here is the 
strong hold of our argument. We do not say, that man 
will hate a God, who tells him, that he must not do 
this or that wrong action, because it is very bad, and 
if he does, God is so merciful, that He will treat him 
just as well as He does the obedient angels. We say 
it is manifest, beyond all contradiction, that if God be 
such a God as He has declared himself to be, if He 
means to maintain His own authority, at the expense 
of His creatures' everlasting well-being because they 
have set themselves in opposition to His will, and if 
men hate the torments of the second death, then must 
they either change their plans and hearts, or hate the 
character of God the Law-maker. If it be, that there 
is no everlasting punishment for unbelief, for impeni- 
tence, for worldliness, for neglect of religion, then we 
abandon our present argument. But if we understand 
the record aright, then we challenge the 'world to deny 
this proposition, that a great change must take place in 
the character of the natural man to have him willing, 



man's natural enmity to god. 53 

t 
nay pleased, to see God threatening, with His everlast- 
ing wrath, the pursuit of selfish gratification. If there 
is a cherished object with the human soul, it is to main- 
tain the independence of the will ; and if men will but 
read their own hearts aright, they will find this to be 
the contested point even with their Creator. The 
struggle is slight, and suspended by frequent intervals. 
But Jehovah is coming out from His hiding-place to 
reveal His Supreme authority, armed with His mighty 
thunders. Will the unsubdued, long-indulged will of 
man then bow sweetly ? If mercy and love have failed 
to soften, will Majesty and Terror win the heart 7 No, 
fellow-men ! no. Hear it from God's messengers now, 
in the land of hope, and in the day of peace. No ; 
" the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 

We see this truth from another point of view. 

II. Man hates the sovereignty of God. God is 
the Supreme Being ; all things being made by Him 
and for Him. His right to accomplish his own desires, 
and to include the free actions of man and all the hu- 
man powers in His plan, none will deny. Nay, it is 
evident that He must carry out His plans, even to the 
sacrifice of every other interest, which may have made 
itself inconsistent with those plans. — " But what if the 
plans of a sovereign God require the abandonment of 
our most beloved objects ? Must we then cordially 
submit ?" — Yes, you must either love, or hate a sove- 
reign God. If you love him supremely, your chief 
happiness will be derived from seeing Him accomplish 
His sovereign will. If you prefer your own immediate 
gratification, or apparent temporal interest, to His will, 
then either His will must be unperformed, or it must 

5* 



54 SERMON II. 

accord with your will, or you must be the enemy of 
God. 

This argument is conclusive to him, who will reflect 
upon it. But we can look at it in a still more impres- 
sive light. Is the human heart strong in its attach- 
ments ? Yes, that is its glory. And yet, in the very 
strength of those attachments, when perverted, the 
heart will find its sources of rebellion against a sove- 
reign God. Is there not strength in the attachment of 
a man to the wife of his bosom, and to their lovely lit- 
tle first-born son ? But what if that husband is sud- 
denly called from the midst of his business, to behold 
that lovely infant a pallid corpse, and that lovely wife 
in the agonies of death ? Would it be strange if he 
should raise his clasped hands in the frenzy of his an- 
guish, and exclaim — " O God ! what have these inno- 
cent ones done, that Thou shouldst thus tear them 
from earth's bright prospects ? — what have I done, that 
Thou shouldst rob me of more than life ?" Say not, 
this is exaggerated. There was one, who could say 
under circumstances somewhat similar — u The Lord 
gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the 
name of the Lord." But that man had not " the carnal 
mind ;" he had learned to value the creature less than 
the Creator ; he had not looked to the creature, how- 
ever lovely, however promising, as the source of his 
highest happiness. Acquiescence in the will of God 
was the main-spring of his joy ; and hence the loss of 
beloved objects only furnished an occasion to manifest 
that resignation. But our text speaks not of that class 
of minds ; and we are not speaking of them. We speak 
indeed of the heart that is full of the tenderest senti- 
ments of kindness, and susceptible of all that is noble, 



man's natural enmity to god. 55 

in attachment to objects worthy of its love. We speak 
of the heart, loving not wrong objects, but such as are 
right, in undue proportion ; of the heart that clings to 
any earthly good with all the intensity of its passions. 
And of this heart we affirm, that, in its present condition, 
it is liable, every moment, to such an in-breaking of 
the hand of God to tear away all it has cherished and 
adored, that a new emotion of enmity may spring up 
like a viper, and become under the successive intrusions 
of a sovereign Providence the master-passion. Do you 
love any thing, fellow-man ? — is it a human being — is 
it the good opinions of men — is it the universal idol, 
wealth, as possessed, or as pursued? Go into thy 
heart, and know thyself; see if it is not possible for the 
plans of God so to interfere with thine, that He would 
appear to thee thine enemy ; and, if He did, wouldst 
thou then love Him 1 Hast thou learned to love thine 
enemy, thy strong enemy, who mars each favorite 
scheme, who hurts thy good name, who maims thy 
body, who takes from thee thy gold ; nay, who makes 
thee, in the same day, a desolate mourner at the tomb 
of thy wife and child ? 

But from this appeal and the argument couched 
under it, there is an apparent escape. It is, either that 
such things will not happen to the individual ; or, if 
they do, that he will not trace them to the hand of 
Providence. Upon these replies much might be said 
to confirm our position. The cases stated are neither 
imaginary, nor of unfrequent occurrence ; and if they 
should not occur, it is not the less certain, that the car- 
nal mind merely tolerates a sovereign God, so long as 
His plans do not interfere with those it has cherished. 
And with regard to the others, it is true, that there may 



56 SERMON II. 

be such an atheistical disregard of the hand of God in 
the common events of life, that he may not become the 
object of immediate hatred, because He is not recog- 
nised as interfering with the individual's happiness. 
But what if the man should find out, that nothing 
takes place except by His ordering ? — what if he should 
discover, that the most common events of life form so 
many links in the great chain, which binds the pur- 
poses of God to their issues ? — what if he finds God 
charging him to see His hand and will in each minut- 
est occurrence ? Will he love Him ? — No, not if there 
be strength in human passions ; — no, not if he has not 
learned to love his enemy ; — no, no ; the man, who 
hates the insect that annoys him, who hates the robber 
of his property, the murderer of his child, the tyrant 
that casts him into prison, must find the same emotion 
arising towards even the mighty God, whom he sees 
crushing, in His omnipotent movement, every idol of 
his soul's affection. It is true, that his conscience will 
not condemn God, as it condems the fellow-man who 
injures him ; but the hatred, which is entirely inde- 
pendent of this faculty, will exist none the less. 

We state a third argument. 

III. The carnal mind hates the mercy of God. 
Here we seem to be in even more glaring inconsistency 
with consciousness than in any former assertion. But 
men have deceived themselves, in regard to what they 
really were conscious of on other subjects ; and a 
closer attention may discover an illusion here. It 
might be thought, at the first glance, that the very self- 
ishness, which we charge on man, would make him 
love a merciful God. We ask attention to facts which 



MANS NATURAL ENMITY TO GOD. 57 

bear on this subject ; the facts of history, and the facts 
of consciousness. 

If the mercy of God consisted in the mere direct 
gratification of the wants of men, our position were 
then false. This vague notion is wonderfully prevalent 
in the world, but is infinitely removed from the sublime 
and holy attribute called Mercy in the Scriptures. It 
we might attempt a Scriptural definition of it in part, 
we should say, that it is the kindness of God to men 
introducing the means of bringing them to holiness, 
forgiveness and heaven. And there is the offensive 
aspect of all its manifestations ; its powers and riches 
are all exerted to make man holy, that he may be truly 
and for ever happy. It was mercy, that bowed the 
listening ear to Abel's prayer, and smiled propitiously 
on his sacrifice ; it was grace that taught and inclined 
him to make the acceptable offering. What was the 
effect of that display of grace to fallen man ? It kin- 
dled the passions of hell in the bosom of Cain, and the 
hatred, which could find no vent toward the God of 
mercy, fell in murderous stroke upon an innocent bro- 
ther. That mercy promised to exalt Joseph even above 
all that his brethren or father had attained. And this 
it was that excited the murderous purpose of his breth- 
ren, even to the desperate extent of defeating the very 
purposes of the Almighty. The Israelites were led 
out of Egypt in mercy ; but because every thing was 
not arranged to their wishes, the very plans and achiev- 
ments and instruments of that mercy perpetually arous- 
ed their wrath. The prophets were sent in mercy ; 
but these were stoned and sawn asunder and driven to 
dwell with wild beasts. At last the Son of God came, 
the Messenger of mercy. From the cradle to the tomb, 



58 SERMON II, 

He drew forth the rage and malice of men. His doc- 
trines, His conduct, His very exertions of merciful 
power, continually drew upon Him the most bitter and 
desperate hatred. 

What more can be needed, than the narrative of the 
four Evangelists, to establish the general fact concern- 
ing the carnal mind, that it hates even the mercy of 
God ? Look at the history of that eventful period, in 
which an experiment was made on human nature ; — 
an experiment to us, not to God, for He knew what 
was in man. It is true, that we call the men of that 
day proud, hypocritical, unbelieving Jews and Phari- 
sees ; but they were men ; they had the same carnal 
mind which has existed in all ages, and still exists, 
however varied its form and outward bearing. There 
lived at that same period Herod and Jesus ; the one 
was an obscene, blood-thirsty tyrant, a cruel extortion- 
er, — the other was a pure, mild, and modest philan- 
thropist. The one rilled the land of Israel with the 
instruments of his extortion, with blood and tears ; — the 
other was seen in the places of poverty, and a mid the 
sad children of affliction, wiping the tear from sorrow's 
eye, and healing its broken heart. The one was toler- 
ated ; but the other was the object of a relentless perse- 
cution, which never let down its watchful malignity, 
until it had heard His death-groans, and seen His life- 
blood flow beneath its stroke. This was indeed the 
highest proof that man could give of his hatred to God, 
even when he displayed nothing but his unmingled 
mercy ; but it was not the last. The ascended Re- 
deemer continued the exercise of that goodness, in the 
communication of the sanctifying Spirit. When the 
disciples were met to pray for this display of that good- 



man's natural enmity to god. 59 

ness, suddenly the Spirit came upon them ; and from 
that hour began their unparalleled career of beneficent 
miracles, and of persuasive presentation of the offers of 
eternal life. Wherever they went, the presence and pow- 
er of the Spirit of God were felt. But his reception was 
the same as that of the Son of God ; cities were filled with 
tumult and uproar whenever the Divine Spirit alighted, 
so that the standing title of the apostles was — " the men 
that have turned the world upside down." The Spirit 
of God did not assume a visible form, which could be- 
come the immediate object of men's hatred ; but he was 
seen and heard in the acts and words of the apostles. 
And Paul declares to us, that mobs and stonings, re- 
vilings, stripes and imprisonment were his rewards, 
everywhere, for fulfilling God's errand of mercy to his 
fellow-men. 

But we leave the facts of ancient history for those 
of our own day, and the experience of other men for 
that, which we cannot doubt, nor deny, as constituting 
a part of our personal moral history. We assert no- 
thing here, but propose such inquiries and suggestions 
as may expose this very hatred of God's mercy, in 
hearts, which would tremble to admit the awful con- 
clusion, while they cannot deny the facts from which 
it is drawn. Some may recollect an opposition to the 
gracious influences of the Spirit of God in other per- 
sons, and some an opposition to those influences in 
themselves. The Savior said, that He had come to 
divide households and to put a sword between friends. 
He came to lead men to holiness. But in the accom- 
plishment of that gracious work, a new and incon- 
genial element, is brought into the midst of the so- 
cial and domestic mass ; and, as when a change takes 



60 SERMON II. 

place in the electrical condition of bodies, the strongest 
revulsions are sometimes the consequence. The influ- 
ences of the grace of God may be sudden, and the 
decisive changes in the feeling and deportment of indi- 
viduals often call forth the strong disapprobation of 
friends. It may be, indeed, that this disapprobation 
shall attach itself to some of the human imperfection, 
which mingles with this new form of character ; but 
after all, its real origin is in the discovery of the direct 
and merciful influences of the Spirit of God upon the 
heart. The relations of life are such, that the religious 
principles of one person may very greatly interfere 
with the schemes of profit or pleasure formed by an- 
other ; and these religious principles are the fruits of 
God's mercy. But the carnal mind, thwarted and 
checked, feels a hatred of those principles, and thus of 
the mercy which caused them. This hatred to the 
religious principles and character of another comes up 
in a thousand shapes ; but, however it comes, it shows 
this fact conclusively, that the carnal mind hates the 
movements of the Divine mercy, as interfering with its 
plans and pleasures. Whoever feels the risings of 
contempt, or of opposition towards the strict religious 
principle, or elevated religious sentiment, manifested 
by another, shows that he hates the grace of God. But 
sometimes that grace comes yet nearer, and touches our 
own hearts, to wake them from their fatal slumbers. 
The startled conscience begins to take a review of life, 
under a new light and a new impulse. The past is 
condemned — the present, is condemned — the future is 
appalling ; inward, upward, backward, onward, which- 
ever way its keen glance is turned, the record of guilt 
and the threat of judgment are beheld. This is painful ; 



man's natural enmity to god. 61 

but it ought to be felt by every child of Adam,, and it 
ought to be welcomed, provided it lead us to Cb „ -At as 
the Author of pardon and peace. It ought to be wel- 
comed, for it is the visit of the Spirit of mercy to our 
guilty bosoms ; it is, in fact, the last effort of mercy for 
our redemption. That renovated power of conscience 
is from the blessed Spirit. But how is it treated? We 
have reason to fear, that the greater part, who hear the 
Gospel, dread and detest those very feelings and con- 
ditions of the mind. Who has not shrunk from the 
keen pressure of the truth, beneath some faithful Spirit- 
taught messenger of God ? who has not dreaded the 
interview of the faithful Christian friend, who, it was 
known, would urge to repentance and holiness? who 
has not turned away from his Bible, feeling that it was 
too dull, too gloomy, too reproving? who has not 
banished the oft-rising reflections upon the guilt and 
danger of the present condition of the soul ? who has 
not run away from himself, and from the secret place 
of prayer, to join the thoughtless throng ? Now, in all 
this the heart discloses its opposition to an Infinite 
mercy that fain would save it, — to that mercy, that 
paid the debt for the soul, and sends the Holy Spirit to 
deliver the deluded and unwilling captive. Hearer ! 
God has no other mercy than a holy mercy ; no other 
merciful treatment of thee than to make thee holy. If 
this please thee not, it is because thou hast the carnal 
mind, which hates God. 

This doctrine stands among those fearful and painful 
truths, the belief of which is most important, because 
fundamental to all true repentance and faith in the 
Gospel. God has besought man to become reconciled 
to Him ; but the appropriateness and tenderness of that 

6 



62 SERMON II. 

entreaty are seen only by him, who recognises himself 
to be at enmity with God. Every man would fain 
know how he can secure his immortal happiness ; and 
yet the greater part shrink from the contemplation and 
belief of the fact that man needs salvation as a sinner, 
conversion as an enemy of God and holiness, pardon 
and reconciliation as a rebel against the Divine govern- 
ment. « They that are whole need not a physician, 
but they that are sick" — is a simple truth, but it in- 
volves some most important considerations. The Sa- 
vior would by it exhibit the necessity of a distinct and 
deep impression of our dangerous and painful condition, 
in order to prepare us to understand and to appreciate 
the Gospel. The object of this discourse is to describe 
the fearful feature of this sickness, to induce the per- 
sonal conviction on the mind — 1 1 am sick, and my 
malady is sin ; — I am sick, not by misfortune, but by 
guilty and persevering choice. I love the creature 
supremely, and consequently must find myself opposed 
to God sooner or later. It is true I am not at present 
conscious of any such enmity — but I see it in the future. 
Changes in my circumstances must soon occur ; and 
occurring, must show me in perfect and perpetual hos- 
tility to Jehovah. I have flattered myself to believe 
that my heart is good ; but I am convinced, that, in 
the sight of God, nothing can be truly good in that 
heart which hates Him. I have looked with horror 
on the wickedness of other men ; but now I see that 
other men have, while they surpassed me in the degree 
of wickedness, not differed from me in the nature of 
their heart. They have been cruel to men, because 
they had gone so far as to despise the very image of the 
God whom they hated. I have hated the bitterness 






63 



and cruelty of persecutions on account of religion, but 
these have been made thus bitter only by the increased 
degree of that very opposition to God which I indulge 
in my own heart. Others have given themselves to 
excessive sensuality, and I have despised them for it ; 
but now I see that they had only matured that love of 
created good, which constitutes the leading feature 
of my own character. My pride is wounded at the 
discovery ; but it is truth, and I can close my eyes no 
longer against it. The Bible insists on the necessity 
of conversion in the case of every human being. Now 
I see that 1 must be born again. My enmity to God 
arises from my supreme attachment to the creature- 
good ,* and it can cease only when I cease to entertain 
the carnal mind. Here is the deliverance I need, and 
here is my dependence on the risen Savior. It is only 
by the power of His Spirit that my chains can be 
broken ; by Him my heart must be changed ; by His 
sweet power my enmity turned to love.' 

But the hearer may fail to receive such convictions 
from this discourse, because the argument turning upon 
individual experience, may have failed of resemblance 
to his personal consciousness. It must then remain 
with him either to reject the declaration of God, or to 
look more closely at his own mental exercises, and see if 
he cannot thereby confirm this truth of the Scriptures. 

REMARKS. 

1. The supreme love of the creature is a dreadful evil. 

This is the precise state of mind indicated by the 
phrase, " the carnal mind." In many of its forms it 
appears, to him who looks only on the outward appear- 
ance, very innocent, and often even amiable. Bat here 
we see its real character, and its terrific consequences. 



64 SERMON II. 

It has these two dreadful issues. First, it makes it im- 
possible that you can enter heaven. In heaven, they 
love God supremely ; — you love the creature supreme- 
ly. In heaven, they have no will, nor plans, inde- 
pendent of God's; but everything is in sweet, intelligent, 
cordial submission to His will. " The carnal mind is 
enmity against God, is not subject to His law, neither 
indeed can be." Then it cannot enter heaven. 

Another consequence of the carnal mind is, that it 
arrays its possessor against the government, plans, and 
will of God. There can be no question, as to which 
party must yield. God's is the strongest arm ; His is 
the cause of righteousness. The conscience of every 
creature must pronounce you wrong, and must vindi- 
cate God in your condemnation. Yes, you must perish 
remaining in that state of mind. God's potent arm 
must roll forward the wheels of His providence. If 
you lay your idols in their path, your idols will be crush- 
ed ; if you set yourselves in opposition to that mighty 
movement, you must perish. Then will He "laugh 
at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh." 

2. " Except a man be born again he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." " Marvel not that I say unto you, 
Ye must be born acrain." The carnal mind must be 

o 

put away. But where shall one begin ? At the cross 
of Christ. Renounce the world in thine heart, and cast 
thyself on Christ. 

The conquest of the carnal mind is not the work of 
a moment ; it is the labor of life. But there must be 
a moment in which it begins ; that moment should be 
now. There is a spot of earth, occupying which, you 
should give yourself for healing into the hands of the 
great Physician. That spot you occupy now. 



SERMON III 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 



/ have written unto you, Young Men, because ye 
are strong." — 1 John ii. 14. 

The venerable writer of this epistle had passed 
through the five stages of human existence : infancy, 
childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. Time had 
now silvered his locks, and given its mellow tints to a 
character, which, even in his earliest manhood, had 
secured to him the title of " the beloved disciple." There 
is, through the whole of this letter, a vein of exquisite 
simplicity and tenderness. He looked back to the 
period of youth, and remembered, how critical and im- 
portant a season it had been to him. By the grace of 
God, his seed time had been rightly employed, and he 
was now reaping a golden harvest of serenity, intelli- 
gence, the confidence of good men, usefulness, and a 
perfect assurance of eternal blessedness. He had leaned 
upon the Savior's bosom; he had followed him the 
most closely in the hour of peril ; and he was now 
finding, in rich experience, that such was the best pre- 
paration that a young man could make, for the sober 
realities of age, and for an approaching eternity. Hence 
his counsels were turned to young men. "I have 
written unto you, young men, because, ye are strong." 

6* 



66 SERMON III. 

His reference is not to the physical, but to the mental 
vigor of youth. Mental strength is a merciful gift of 
God, which may be wasted on trifles, or perverted to 
evil, or used for great and good purposes. It is the 
power, which God has imparted to form our own 
character, and to control the character and destinies 
of others. In reference to the subject before us, we are 
not called upon to examine the manner, or time, in 
which this strength is imparted from our beneficent 
and merciful Creator. It is strength, — human strength, 
and, of course, derived strength, to which the apostle 
alludes. The praise and gratitude belong to God who 
gives it. To man belong the privilege and the respon- 
sibility of possessing it. Let our attention, then, be 
directed first to those great objects, which the young 
should distinctly and constantly propose to themselves, 
as the glorious achievements, for which, by the energy, 
the freshness, the enthusiasm of their age, they are so 
peculiarly qualified. We consider, 

I. The noblest objects of youthful desire and 'pur- 
suit. 

1. Personal improvement. I mean by this, that 
every young man should aim to become as truly good 
and excellent as he can be. I speak not now of his 
becoming great. That we shall consider presently. It 
is painful to discover, how few of the young men of 
Christian countries take a sufficiently elevated view 
of themselves, as endowed with the noblest, though 
perverted, creature-powers. One looks upon himself 
in no higher light, than as a mint for the coining of 
money. If he can learn the great art of accumulating 
property, he has reached the summit of human excel- 
lence. Multitudes are satisfied with the mere training ; 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 67 

of their muscular powers in some mechanical art, to 
the utter neglect of all the mighty powers of intellect, 
and of all the finer sentiments and affections of the 
heart. It is painful to know, that every youth has a 
depraved heart, and still more so, to observe that so 
few have any desire to rectify the moral derangement, 
and to restore to the soul the sweet, harmonious, 
balanced exercise of its powers. Nay, some have even 
yielded themselves to the gratification of every de- 
praved desire and feeling ; restrained only by a regard 
to their reputation. They look upon the present life, 
not as probationary and disciplinary, and preparatory 
to a better ; but as the golden time for the indulgence 
of all the lower propensities of the mind. 

My proposal to the young before me is — that they 
look upon the immortal mind within, as their noblest 
possession ; and upon the training of that, under 
the blessing of God, to piety and virtue, as their most 
important employment. It is that part of your nature, 
which places you but little below the angels. It is 
upon the proper employment of its powers, that your 
happiness here, and your blessedness hereafter, entirely 
depend. Your moral condition is a peculiarity in the 
history of God's empire. Angels, before you, have fal- 
len from their high estate ; but, unlike you, they have 
no mediator with God. They have no hope of pardon. 
Like you, they are perpetually disturbing and distract- 
ing the delicate harmony of their moral powers. But, 
unlike you, they are under no dispensation of grace. 
No sweet, overwhelming views of the benignity and 
mercy of their offended Creator shines upon their dreary, 
despairing souls. While Memory incessantly portrays 
the scenes of former glory and happiness, the finger of 



68 SERMON III 



Hope never points them to eminences of bliss, and per- 
sonal perfection, which may be attained. To you, 
young friends ! to you all this pertains. There is a 
provision in the mercy of God, not only for the pardon 
of the penitent, but also for the ensuring of success " to 
them, who by patient continuance in well doing, seek 
for glory and honor, and immortality/*' Who. that has 
once conceived aught of the primitive condition of man, 
or of angelic purity, does not see, that the world within 
him has lost its balancing power ? Disorder and discord 
have usurped the place of order and harmony. God 
was once the centre of all the social system, and love 
its attractive power. Then the created soul moved in 
its own sphere, in harmony with the universe. Then 
God was its light and its life. But now the centripetal 
power of love is lost from the soul, and its centrifugal 
energies are driving the poor wandering star into the 
"blackness of darkness" eternal. God is no longer its 
centre. And hence, where once were verdant bloom- 
ings, the cold and barrenness of polar regions are seen 
and felt. Where the love of God exists not, there must 
be confusion, corruption, and death. Where self is the 
centre of attraction, the primitive order is destroyed, 
and what should have produced life and blessedness, 
must result in misery and death. 

Who, that knows himself, can refuse the application 
to himself of these remarks ? Who can say — " I am 
right ; — I am clean ; — I am prepared without change to 
stand before the throne of God ; — this delicate machinery 
has never been disturbed, its balance-wheel never fail- 
ed V Man's moral depravity consists in his perverted 
affections, and in the voluntary blindness of his con- 
science, and the feebleness of its directing power. The 



OBLIGATIONS OP YOUNG MEN. 69 

conscience was given to show us, when and how far 
our desires and affections may be properly gratified. 
We are supremely selfish, when all our choices, pur- 
poses, and actions tend only to our own gratification. 
We are ungodly, when our affections rest supremely 
on the creatures of God. Both these conditions of the 
mind an enlightened conscience would check and re- 
prove. But where it does not, there it is blind, and 
voluntarily blind, because God has thrown around us 
light sufficient to guide our steps. The conscience is 
feeble, when, with what light we do possess, it cannot 
restrain the selfish desires, and the idolatrous affec- 
tions, from controlling the conduct, and forming the 
character. 

This description embraces two great classes. It in- 
cludes, first, the creature of passion. When he does 
any thing, it is because he feels a strong impulse to do 
it ; consequently, that which ought to stand eagle-eyed 
between the will, and every impulse excited by exter- 
nal objects, is either blind, or dumb and powerless. It 
either sees no wrong, or is weary of speaking the lan- 
guage of remonstrance, or it is no longer the balancing 
power, determining which impulse shall prevail, and 
which shall not. 

This description includes also the man of earthly 
affections. He may be benevolent, and just, and true 
to man, because these are either, to a certain extent 
constitutional propensities, like hunger and thirst, or 
are adopted as adapted to promote temporal happiness. 
He cannot see, that he is selfish ; for he is kind, up- 
right, and faithful. But he may easily see that he is 
ungodly ; by which is meant, that his affections em- 
brace not God. He is just, but not towards the Creator, 



70 SERMON III, 

whom he thus defrauds of his affections and of all his 
powers ; affectionate, but not towards God ; grateful, 
but not to the Man of Calvary, — the God incarnate. 
This is moral derangement, and it must be rectified. It 
should be commenced immediately, under the gracious 
influence of that Spirit, who now comes forth from the 
mediatorial Prince of Life, to raise and restore ruined 
man. The affections must embrace God supremely 
in their wide scope. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength." 
To him we must be reconciled in Christ, and of him 
obtain forgiveness. Conscience must become the direc- 
tor of actions and of volitions, under the guidance of 
the Spirit and the word of Christ. Those pernicious 
habits of sensuality, which many have formed, — those 
habits of self-will, which all have formed, — those habits 
of speaking and acting from passion, impulse, or desire, 
regardless of the moral right or wrong, must all be 
changed. From the pride, which originates in selfish- 
ness, and is sustained by moral blindness, you must 
come to a perpetual abiding in that holy and glorious 
presence which bows to heaven's pavement the tallest 
angels. From all that groveling absorption in the 
things of a probationary state, which were meant, not 
for the perfection of the soul in love, but for its disci- 
pline in penitence, and humility, and self-government, 
you must set your affections on things above, where 
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. In a word, 
you must undertake the training of a blessed spirit for 
the society and bliss of those, who " have washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'' 
We propose, 

2. The Work of Philanthropy ; — doing of good to 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 71 



the extent of your power. Who is the greatest man 
that ever lived 1 I speak of any that may be, or that 
was designed, in the Providence of God, to be a model 
for the race. It is blasphemy to rank, in true moral 
greatness, — that greatness which is the legitimate ob- 
ject of human ambition, — any above Jesus of Nazareth. 
Say not that he is too far removed to be our model. 
As a man, he was but a man, a perfect man, made in 
the likeness of sinful flesh ; and the direction to us is, 
— " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus." True greatness, as exhibited by him, is to 
live, and consecrate the time and powers to higher 
objects than such as men generally pursue ; and, in the 
pursuit of those objects, to pass by the indulgence of 
the desires and feelings, which constitute the happiness 
of most men. It was a fine specimen of the moral sub- 
lime, when Jesus sat weary and hungry at the well of 
Jacob, and said, " My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me." It was spoken, in view of the ignorant 
and perishing souls then flocking to him from the city. 
It should never have been, for one moment, a question 
with any human being, whether or not there is, truly, 
any greater object for which we can live, than that for 
which he lived. The only point, which it might have 
seemed presumption to believe, is, that we are permitted 
to engage in the same lofty enterprise ; that it is not 
enough for heaven's mercy to call us to pardon, and 
peace, and the hope of heaven ; but even to the very 
work, which tasked all the human energies of the Re- 
deemer, and which illustrated all his Divine perfections. 
Yes, my young friends ! you are called to become phi- 
lanthropists. The sound of the trumpet is heard on 
high, — « To arms ! To arms !' — but it comes from the 



72 SERMON III. 

Captain of Salvation, the Prince of Peace. It is to a 
bloodless field — to contend " not with flesh and blood, 
but with principalities and powers, and spiritual wick- 
edness in high places." The rider on the " White 
Horse" goes not forth alone against the enemies of God 
and man. The victors, who are yet to walk in the 
triumphal procession, with palm leaves in their hands, 
are " the dwellers on the earth ;" some, doubtless, of 
them before me. Their weapons are the weapons of 
light, wielded in the cause of God and humanity. But 
what are the objects of this moral warfare ? They are 
— to deliver the prey from the spoiler, to burst open 
the prison doors, and to proclaim liberty to the cap- 
tives. You are called to sigh and weep in the spirit 
of a Howard, — nay, the spirit of Howard's Savior — 
over the degradation, and wide-spread misery, of a race, 
which has apostatized from God, in its affections, and 
its allegiance. 

We propose to you to become great men in the sight 
of God, of angels, and of the good on earth. And, 
if we have observed aright, it is hastening to this, — 
that the standard of greatness is undergoing a change ; 
that to be a great man, in the estimation even of the 
world, will require, that he, to whom the distinction is 
awarded, shall exercise the moral and benevolent feel- 
ings, and not the selfish feelings, as his great impelling 
power ; that his theatre shall be the scenes of actual 
wretchedness and moral degradation ; that in his track 
shall be found the ignorant enlightened, the captive 
exulting in his freedom, the heart of the orphan glad- 
dened, the cause of justice and truth established; 
the glory of God promoted. Oh ! if you desire fame, 
let it be the fame of leaving the human family better 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 73 

and happier than you found it ; if your ear must drink 
in praise, let it be the blessing of him that was ready 
to perish ; let your monuments be the rich garden 
spots of moral beauty and fruitfulness, reclaimed from 
the waste wilderness. Help to increase the facilities 
for educating the mind of man — to improve the modes 
of educating — to spread these facilities, till they have 
benefited every member of the vast brotherhood of man. 
Let your party in politics be the great party whose aim 
is to have all men, under every government and any 
administration, govern themselves by the laws of God. 
Let every moral reformation receive from your hand 
an impulse and a happy guidance, which, but for you, 
it would never have received. Lift, on these shores 
of the great ocean of life, more of these moral light- 
houses, which shall save from temporal and eternal 
destruction the souls of men. Let a light be kindled, 
that shall continue to burn when you are dead. If it 
is the light of truth, others will tend it, and trim it, and 
feed it. It will continue to burn with increasing 
strength and clearness, scattering from a wider and yet 
wider region the midnight darkness ; enlightening and 
cheering man on his way to eternity, even to the day, 
when the sun shall be blotted out ; and then it will 
still burn and mingle its rays with the glories of the 
celestial city. Young men ! I speak to you, because 
all this glory may be yours. Yes, under the merciful 
administration of Jesus Christ, you may become both 
good and great. 

But, if we should succeed to stir up any strong de- 
sires in your minds, let us not leave you deceived by a 
false inference, that all this is reached by an impulse, 
a wish, and a resolution. To attain the high character 

7 



74 SERMON III, 

of a practical, efficient philanthropist, requires much 
personal cultivation, much well-digested knowledge 
and experience ; and that these should be but qualifica- 
tions, not substitutes, for activity. And, with the 
greater part, these attainments are to be the reward of 
eiforts almost unaided by man. One child in ten thou- 
sand is blessed with a happy education. A mother, or, 
as by a miracle, some competent substitute, has watched 
over the first dev elopement and expansion of the powers. 
The understanding has been rightly disciplined and 
well-informed ; the exuberant feelings have been chas- 
tened ; the finer sensibilities cultivated ; the soul formed 
to manliness, to piety, and practical wisdom. Oh ! 
these instances are rare. Most of the good, who have 
adorned the world, and of the truly great, who have 
blessed it, have, under heaven's favor, made themselves. 
They have grappled with the evil habits of youth ; 
they have struggled against the influence of evil com- 
panions, and of a depraved public sentiment ; they 
have feared, and wept, and prayed, and studied under 
discouragements, which, contemplated in the mass, 
would have appalled them. All this we know. And 
yet, with all this in view, we urge you to become good 
and great men. This will require you to become truly 
pious men. This is the first element of true greatness ; 
because it ;s the only state in which the moral powers 
are rightly exercised. Sin is the only truly despicable 
object in the sight of God. And piety is its antagonist 
and opposite principle. All other greatness only re- 
moves you the farther from God's esteem, and the 
respect of angels. It only lifts you higher, that you 
may sink the deeper in eternal disgrace. Shun that 
false and phantom-greatness which lures you to eternal 



OBLIGATIONS OP YOUNG MEN. 75 

ruin. He is not a great man, who depends on any- 
thing physical, or any thing external for his greatness. 
Greatness is not in reputation, but in character. He is 
not truly great, who does not meet the obligations, 
which arise from all his relations, and chiefly those to 
God. That is not greatness, which will not make one 
illustrious at the judgment day, and respected in heaven. 
'He is not a great man, who does not enjoy the blessing 
of God. Moses was truly great. Select one exhibition 
of it. When the cloud of God's wrath was gathered 
over the guilty children of Israel, it was not learning, 
nor military talents, nor political sagacity, that could 
save them ; it was prayer. This is power, and Moses 
possessed it. This is greatness, and Moses possessed it. 
Young men ! become men of prayer. The eternal 
and wise God changed the name of Jacob to that of 
Prince of God. Why ? Because he had native mental 
power, or great intellectual acquirements ? No ; but 
because he had power with man, and power to prevail 
with God in prayer. Ah ! that is the highest style of 
eloquence, which persuades God. Get it, young men ! 
in the school of Christ ; get it, as patriots, for your 
country's sake ; get it, as reformers of a sinful world. 
It is idle to look or labor for the renovation of the 
frame-work of society, unless you renovate the hearts 
of men ; and it is vain to hope for that, without the aid 
of God's Holy Spirit. And his influences will be sent 
upon others, in answer to our prayers. Be men of 
prayer. It is the best attainment of a patriot, and of a 
philanthropist. And to attempt the radical renovation 
of society, independently of the agency of God's Spirit, 
which he has promised to give in answer to prayer, is 
moral quackery. 



76 SERMON III. 

To be useful requires a cultivated mind. This 
consists in two things ; — the proper discipline of the 
mental faculties, and a knowledge of man, of the phy- 
sical world which surrounds him, and of the God in 
whom he lives and moves. To be an efficient philan- 
thropist you must be possessed of a well-cultivated 
mind. We propose no royal road to this eminence. 
The men, who have reached it, have toiled and fainted, 
and again toiled, and again been discouraged. They, 
that reap in great joy, and bear home their sheaves 
with shouting from this field, are they, who carried 
forth their precious seed and scattered it with tears, 
Yes, the great Philanthropist himself was not exempt 
from this universal law. Gethsemane and Cal vary lifted 
their terrific barriers between him and the end of his 
labors. To be philanthropists you must become stu- 
dents. No branch of knowledge will be out of place, 
while some will be more important than others. Neither 
the time nor the occasion allow an enumeration of 
those processes of mental discipline, and those branches 
of knowledge, which you may profitably pursue for this 
great purpose. It may suffice to say that the intel- 
lectual faculties which you should train, and the habits 
which you should form, are — reflection — attention — 
arrangement of facts under principles — activity — judg- 
ment. If I should recommend any books to those who 
wish to commence, they would be Dr. Abercrombie's 
two little works on the intellectual and moral faculties. 

But, besides mental strength and correct intellectual 
and moral habits, you must be acquainted with facts 
and principles. 

God is the first great object of knowledge. You are 
his and in his world. Apostacy from him is man's misery 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. /7 

— reconciliation to him the only happiness. The Bible 
is, therefore, the first book in a human library ; because, 
on each of these points, it throws a light which no 
other can furnish. There never was, in modern days, 
a great efficient public philanthropist, who achieved 
much for the moral renovation of mankind, whose prin- 
ciples were not formed by the Bible. 

As you are to operate upon man, you cannot know 
him too intimately. Your sources of knowledge are 
the Bible, Observation, Introspection, and History. 

Physical science should be one branch of your 
studies. We recommend a cultivated taste ; — the habit 
of writing, speaking, and conversing properly and im- 
pressively. You should obtain right views of the 
object of our position in this world, and of the true 
value of time, property, and every other means of 
influence. 

It requires, finally, a well-balanced mind. By which 
is meant, one that is neither indolent, nor idly active, 
nor injuriously active ; — one that is neither insensible 
to the sufferings of man, nor so sensitive as to be un- 
fitted for action, nor yet driven to act blindly and inju- 
diciously : — one that is not wavering on great practical 
principles, nor yet rash in forming a judgment and 
obstinate in maintaining it ; but one that looks calmly 
at a subject on every side, under a solemn sense of re- 
sponsibility to posterity and to God, and then dares to 
believe what is true, and to proclaim it on every suit- 
able occasion ; — one that is willing to hear counsel, to 
profit by advice, and yet fearless of personal conse- 
quences, if the cause of truth and human happiness 
requires sacrifice. We may not now illustrate each 
of these ; but we may take one, and expand it a little. 

7* 



78 SERMON III. 

That independence, which you must acquire, in order 
that you may become an efficient benefactor to your 
race, has been impressively exhibited by many, who 
have gone before you in this noble career. That the 
condition of the human race is improving, on the 
whole, is evident. There is an advance in parts of the 
world, in science, and in the arts which make matter 
subservient to mind, in morals, in religious science, in 
jurisprudence, and in the international law. For all 
these advances, we are indebted to the divine mercy. 
But the instruments, which God was pleased to employ, 
were men, who had by much cultivation become fitted 
for their sphere, and then, with singular firmness and 
independence, moved forward in the work of reform- 
ation. 

Polytheism was the national, the court-religion of 
Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Persia. Some bold spirits 
must have dared to investigate whether public sentiment 
was right on this point. And, after investigating, some- 
thing more was required. There must have been a 
wise selection of the modes of publishing the truth, 
and of opposing the popular error. Yes, and there 
must have been an utter abandonment of the public 
favor, an exposure even of life, which none but an ele- 
vated mind will considerately incur, in view of a great 
object of public welfare. Need I mention, as high on 
this list, Isaiah, the sublime reprover of idolatry, and 
all the prophets of the Old Testament, who were stoned, 
burned, and sawn asunder ? To them and to their 
firmness are we indebted for our conceptions of the 
unity of God. and of the infinite majesty and glory of 
his name. 

Judaism was the state-religion which opposed the 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 79 

introduction of Christianity. We inherit the latter as 
our richest legacy ; but it cost other blood besides that 
of its great Author. Read the lives of its first preachers 
and professors, for an illustration of that decision and 
independence, which is demanded of the benefactors 
of our race. To whom are we indebted for the benefits 
of the Reformation ; and to what traits in the characters 
of the Reformers ? 

You might find even in the history of physical sci- 
ence specimens of the same. Such was Copernicus, 
whose knowledge and boldness called the wrath of the 
inquisitorial fathers upon him. 

We have thus urged you, not merely to become great 
men, but, — that which needs a more powerful stimu- 
lus, — to go through the severe process of preparation 
for it. Were we thus to urge little children, our argu- 
ment and appeal would fail alike of being understood 
and felt. And so with men in the maturity of life, fixed 
in the inflexibility of their intellectual and moral habits. 
But I have spoken « unto you, young men ! because 
ye are strong." And it now remains, after this exhi- 
bition of the great objects, to which your mental strength 
must be directed, to observe, 

II. That Youth is the period of life in which the 
pursuit of these objects must be commenced. 

1. Youth has its peculiar advantages for the form- 
ation of character. The periods of human life may 
be variously divided, for various purposes. The body 
runs through the seasons of helplessness and spright- 
liness, vigor and decrepitude. The intellect has some- 
times two periods, generally three. The mind is at 
first shut up ; it then expands ; and, if neglected, it 
runs back again to imbecility. But, if rightly treated, 



80 SERMON III. 

the mind would lift its pinions, with growing strength, 
until the moral coil is dropped. Except in cases of 
disease, its vigor would remain unimpaired, if not neg- 
lected. In respect, therefore, to intellectual improve- 
ment, youth is the important time of forming those 
habits, which cannot afterwards be formed, when the 
active duties of life rush upon man to the extent of a 
total absorption of time and thought. 

But this sentiment is most emphatically true, as we 
observe the peculiarity of man's moral structure. With 
regard to character, infancy is the period of mental tor- 
por. Then comes the season of childhood, when pro- 
pensities are first developed ; when the imitative power 
is brought into exercise, but the conscience is feeble, 
and its discernment of right and wrong exceedingly 
limited. Now the habits of animal indulgence are 
formed, without scarcely an understanding that man 
must live for higher ends. Now the habits of lying, 
fraud, pilfering, meanness, are formed, with scarcely a 
whisper from the inward monitor, and with almost no 
conception of a holy and all-seeing Judge, and a future 
retribution. Such, as matters of fact, are the ^disadvan- 
tages, under which man commences the formation of 
character ; even at the very period when the lowest 
propensities have the strongest play, and when his 
own moral checks are the feeblest. Not that children 
have no conscience. Not that they are incapable of 
feeling the generous impulses of gratitude and sympa- 
thy. But this is emphatically the period, when they 
must be governed and instructed by others. The 
plastic hand of education must now do for them what 
nature has not done, and what they cannot do for them- 
selves. But we pass from childhood to the third stage 



OBLIGATIONS OP YOUNG MEN. 81 

[ of man's moral history. Here he appears with his pro- 
! pensities to animal gratification— the strongest mental 
bias ; his imagination the wildest, and yet most com- 
manding intellectual faculty. But with all this, he has 
some experience of the evils of transgression ; the sense 
of right and wrong has become formed. He is now 
capable of choosing his gratifications, in view of all 
the relations he sustains to God and man in time and 
eternity, of his obligations, and of the consequences 
to himself and others. The appetites and passions 
are strong ; but they have not the fearful strength of 
habit long-matured. Evil examples are powerful. 
But conscience, as it were new-born, is vigorous and 
powerful too. Resolution is a power, which has not 
yet been overcome, and it lives enwrapped in its giant 
strength within the youthful bosom. The sense of 
shame is a powerful barrier against vice. The finer 
feelings of the heart, not yet rendered callous, plead 
against it. Here is the interesting period of youth. 
The child was the creature of impulse, of sympathy, 
of imitation, of stubbornness perhaps, but not of deci- 
sion. This has exceptions ; yet it is generally true. 
But now appears the youth on the stage of probation, 
ushered amid scenes and companions, whose moral 
bearings he just begins to comprehend. To him the 
task is committed, to form in a few short years the 
character of one man for life, and deeply to affect the 
destinies of a multitude more. That season passes. 
He goes on from the age of twenty-five to that of 
thirty years j and it is generally then determined what 
character he will bear through life, and in what sphere 
of moral influence he will move. If he has yielded to 
sensual desires, to meanness, to fraud, sordid gratifi- 



82 SERMON III. 

cation ; if he has stooped from the lofty aspirings after 
holiness and immortal glory from the hands of his 
Redeemer; he has become weak in the chains of a 
self-imposed slavery. And every fitful struggle only 
proves their iron-strength. It was evidently this 
moral strength to which the Apostle alluded, for he 
says, — " Ye are strong, and have overcome the wick- 
ed one." Here was the proof of their strength ; that 
with the moral energy, imparted by grace, they had 
overcome the great enemy, in whom is concentrated 
all moral evil. Young men ! ye are strong to effect 
this great object committed to man, — the formation of 
character ; — strong to grapple with the moral and spir- 
itual foes, that shoot with the arrows of contempt, or 
the deadlier weapons of flattery ; that decoy where 
they cannot beat down. 

2. Youth is the most favorable season to commence 
the preparation for a life of elevated philanthropy. 

Imagine this entire assembly to be aroused by the 
Spirit of God, in view of the importance of this subject, 
to an intense desire to commence the formation of those 
habits, and the acquisition of those attainments, which 
should fit them to become extensively the benefactors 
of the world. The desire might burn like an inward 
fire. But what will it avail yonder aged man ? He 
may sigh over the mistakes and moral blindness of his 
youth, over time and faculties wasted, over a life al- 
most spent, and its greatest object left unaccomplished. 
It may prostrate his soul in penitence and contrition 
before God. And he may say, with soul-thrilling elo- 
quence, — " Young men ! ye, ye are strong : but with 
me it is too late. Yours is the fire, and fervor, and 
force ; — yours, the facility for forming new habits, 



OBLIGATIONS OP YOUNG MEN. 83 

which mark you as the favored objects of these appeals. 
My summer is past, my harvest is ended.' — 

Yours, young men ! is more than this ; your very 
position in society is that of strength. The wicked one 
is contending for the mastery with the Prince of Peace. 
The embattled hosts are on the field. The cruel regi- 
ments of Infidelity, Intemperance, Gambling, Licen- 
tiousness, are all, under their great leader, pressing their 
terrific conquests over human virtue and happiness. 
But it is with the young men of this generation to de- 
termine the condition of the war to the end of time. 
Your individual character and influence could do 
much. But what could not your united influence ac- 
complish ? Let the young men desert the standards 
of Infidelity, Intemperance, Gambling, Profaneness, 
Sabbath-desecration, and Uncleanness ; and who will 
lift their banners of blood again, when the old drunk- 
ards and debauchees, and gospel-despisers have passed 
away? Yours is the strength to beat down, in the 
present generation, the enemies of God and man, and to 
keep them low in, at least the next. Yours it might be 
to train, under yet better auspices, a still more efficient 
army for the Prince Immanuel. And although the 
little band, here collected, cannot do what belongs to 
the entire body of youth, yet the work must, at some 
time begin somewhere, that every word, which the 
Lord hath spoken, may be established. 

But, methinks, I hear the tones of despondency ; — 
" The speaker forgets his commission ; many, with 
whom, and for whom he came to plead, enjoy but limit- 
ed opportunities for mental cultivation. But here is a 
path stricken out, which requires all the time and all 
the opportunities afforded by a liberal education. He 



84 SERMON III. 

has surely forgotten the merchant's and mechanic's ap- 
prentice ?" — No, young man ! I have spoken thus even 
unto you ; because, with all the disadvantages of your 
situation for mental cultivation, you are strong. And, 
to strike a decisive blow at your discouragements, I 
would lay down the broad proposition, that there is no 
situation or employment, in which it is proper for a 
young man to be, in which he may not become a good 
and a great man. You must breathe-in the gospel- 
principle, that it is neither family, nor property, nor 
profession, which forms real character, merit, or re- 
spectability. Look not for honor to your profession, 
but to your character. With regard to the formation 
of a religious and moral character, surely you can com- 
plain of no special disadvantages. It is, then, the in- 
tellectual part of the training for which you think you 
have not time and opportunity. I admit that there are 
four particulars in which the liberally-educated has the 
advantage. 

I. In the amount of time which he can devote to 
mental improvement. And yet there are some com- 
pensating circumstances, which you, perhaps, overlook. 
It is demonstrated beyond dispute from physiological 
science and observation, that muscular exercise, such 
as agreeably employs the mind, is indispensable to the 
best cultivation of the entire man. Some of the first 
young men of America have utterly disqualified them- 
selves for usefulness, by a disproportioned exercise of 
the mind. And besides, if you are truly aroused to take 
firm hold on this great enterprise of self-improvement, 
the probability is, that those hours, which you can de- 
vote to it, will be so much more profitably spent, that 



OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 85 

you will accomplish more real study, than is done by 
the majority of college-students. 

It is not the enrolment on the catalogue of a univer- 
sity, nor the residence within college- walls, nor the 
listening to professors' lectures, that makes the man. 
It depends, at last, on his own efforts, how much he is 
benefitted. If, with a faithful attention to those interests 
of your employer with which you are intrusted, and 
due attention to the particular branch of business which 
you are learning, there are combined the habits of scru- 
pulously saving time, of guarding the mind against 
every thing which interferes with its improvement, of 
conquering difficulties, of persevering in the midst of 
discouragements, and of still keeping the eye on a high 
mark, when all the circumstances in which you are 
placed are depressing ; you have a moral training 
for philanthropic effort that is invaluable. You com- 
plain of the want of time. Where did Benjamin 
Franklin find it to form in his printing-office the phi- 
losopher and the statesman ? Had we more Franklins 
in the shops, we should have more in the senate-cham- 
ber. The living names of great and good men, who 
have surmounted the same difficulties, are very numer- 
ous. Economy of time and system would accomplish 
for you what might now seem wonders. 

Another of your disadvantages is, 

2. The want of that collision of mind, which (Schools 
and Colleges afford. This is a real difficulty, and we 
will not look to you to remove it ; but, I trust, the day 
is not far distant, when your fellow-citizens will see 
this subject in a true light, and assist you in the form- 
ation of such Societies for discussion and composition, 
as will greatly advance the development of your mental 

8 



86 SERMON III. 

powers. And yet, to show you what can be done 
among yourselves, with a little assistance from others, 
I refer you to the account of the Gas-Light Company 
of Glasgow, as stated in the Penny Magazine, vol. xi, 
p. 60, American edition. 

3. You are in want of Professors or Teachers. I 
can only say now, — bend down, dear youth ! with all 
the energies of your soul, to intellectual and moral im- 
provement ; we will hail your advances, and welcome 
you as brothers. We will do more. I can almost 
pledge this community to furnish you with lectures, 
and with courses of instruction. Your evenings may 
be divided between the public worship of your God, 
private study, and the public lecture. You shall have 
higher attractions than the theatre, ball-room, or 
gambling-house can offer. 

4. And the remaining difficulty is the want of books. 
Is that so? In this community are there youthful 
minds, panting for knowledge, who cannot reach its 
precious fountain ; and this, for the want of a little of 
the property, which God has so liberally bestowed upon 
us ? No, young friends ! this will not be the case long, 
after this community shall have learned your necessi- 
ties. Your cause is strong. It is the plea of want, 
laid at the heart of patriotism and benevolence. It is 
not a cry for bread. It is the mind, struggling through 
the mists of mental night, panting for light, thirsting 
for the living waters of knowledge. Not many words 
are needed in presenting your claim before this Chris- 
tian community. They feel for you, for their country, 
for posterity, for the honor of their city. It shall not be 
said, that the claim of an Institution, formed for your in- 
tellectual and moral improvement, was presented in vain. 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 87 



In closing my remarks, I turn again to yon, young 
men ! I have presented but one side of the subject. 
You are strong not only for good, but also for evil. 
You are strong constitutionally. But the greater your 
strength, the more critical your situation. Your vigor 
is but like steam in navigation, the impelling power ; 
it is not the helm. If you abandon yourself to blind 
impulse, remember that life's stream is winding ; re- 
member, how thickly it is underlaid with rocks and 
shoals. In coming up the Thames, they do not trust 
even an experienced master, but must employ a pilot 
who has studied every inch of the river. And dare 
you venture on the stream of time, without an enlight- 
ened conscience for your pilot? If your helm be not 
vigilantly and strongly commanded by this only skilful, 
faithful guide, you must inevitably be wrecked. You 
are strong to undermine the pillars of social order. 
You may live yet many years, doing the work of 
death. 

There are two parties in morals in this community : 
on the one side, are engaged the friends of public virtue 
and true religion ; on the other, the sustainers of vice, 
of infidelity, of intemperance, and of all forms of evil. 
Where shall your strength be enlisted ? If with Virtue 
and Godliness, let it be actively, efficiently employed. 
Who dares devote the peculiar strength of youth to 
selfish purposes of any kind ? When you may without 
extravagance hope to become public benefactors, is it 
right to bury your powers ? How can you determine, 
in becoming a lawyer, physician, mechanic, or mer- 
chant, to live for yourself? Are there not motives 
sufficiently powerful to induce you to live for the good 
of your race ? See how it is sunk in ignorance, in op- 



SERMON III. 

You may help to elevate it. Yes, 
you may help to purify and elevate the character of 
this whole empire, and make its influence yet more 
powerful and beneficial to the entire world. 

You live in a day of peculiar promise to the human 
race. There is a waking up of the human mind from 
the slumber of ages, and a startling of the human con- 
science from its long torpor. An intense curiosity and 
earnest anxiety for the word of God, are now heaving 
the mass of the pagan mind. The heathen are calling 
to the sons of Britain and America, to become cordial 
believers in that gospel, which they so richly enjoy, to 
enlist as Missionaries, and to herald its joyful tidings 
to their waiting crowds. They call upon our educated 
youth, to enlist all their genius and learning in order 
to illustrate the science of God and salvation. They 
call upon our mechanics, to educate themselves to go 
forth as the pioneers of the arts, which have flowed in 
the wake of Christianity. And did one poor fanatic, 
emerging from his murky cell, once rouse the chivalry 
of Europe to pour its wealth, its talent, its nobility, its 
royalty, down upon the infidel Turk, to liberate the 
holy sepulchre from pollution? And have not we a 
nobler order of mind to address and move ? — have not 
we a holier crusade to commend ? Did kings throw 
away their sceptres, and grasp the sword to carry war, 
and devastation, and death, amidst innocent thousands, 
merely to gratify a sentiment of superstition ? And 
will not our youth be ready even to forsake their fire- 
sides, in the holier, nobler work, of bowing the heart 
of man to the sceptre of Christ ? Look at the minute 
steps in this great work. The preacher, schoolmaster, 
physician, farmer, mechanic, must go and lead their 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 89 



benighted minds to Christ ; must carry them the press, 
educate their children, form new habits, and reorganize 
the structure of domestic society. 

Now all this range of thought strikes us with pecu- 
liar force, when we remember, that there are no 
impediments to personal improvement, but such as 
indolence presents. Merit, in every civilized country, 
affords an acknowledged claim to public confidence, 
and to extensive influence. To do good requires no 
genealogical table, no great family-name. Young 
men ! we know not how to cease our importunity. 
Will you commence, or pursue with renewed vigor, 
the course of self-improvement for philanthropic pur- 
poses ? We want you to become truly strong men, in 
knowledge, in intellectual power, in moral energy. 
We want you, not to be the authors of ephemeral 
excitements in our excitable world, but to impress 
deeply on the human mind the eternal principles of 
moral and religious truth. Take the Redeemer of men 
for your model. Study deeply and prayerfully his 
character, until you breathe his spirit. Read the 
biography of good and great mem Take, as a model 
of judicious perseverance, Granville Sharp. Under 
what one has called, — " the excitement of mercy," — he 
was led to protect a slave from Barbadoes, named Jona- 
than Strong, who was brought to England by his 
master, and becoming sick, was left to perish in the 
streets. After he had recovered, under the kind atten- 
tions of a brother of Sharp, his master claimed him 
as his slave. This aroused the noble soul, that could 
feel another's woes as keenly as his own. Sharp im- 
mediately applied himself to a new study. And if 
every man, who studies law, would do it as he did,— 

8* 



90 . SERMON III. 

- 

to become an able philanthropist, — that profession 
might exert an influence for good, which cannot be 
calculated. He examined the principles of the British 
constitution and law, to see whether they really stood 
opposed to liberty and the rights of man, or not. The 
decisions of all the highest courts were against him. 
Here then he determined to take his stand, with no 
other weapon than truth. He opposed the ablest and - 
profoundest jurist England ever saw ; and he main- 
tained that opposition, until he overthrew the influence 
of authoritative, but unjust opinion, and finally estab- 
lished the glorious truth, that, by the British constitu- 
tion, every human being, that treads on British soil, 
is free. Two long years he spent, not in vaporing, 
and denouncing, and frothy declamation, but in an 
intense study of law. He then consulted the most 
eminent jurists, and wrote several tracts to enlighten 
the public mind, and prepare the way for his attack. 
After the case of Strong was decided in favor of the 
master, three other cases were tried, each one of which 
opened the way for Sharp to shake the prejudices, 
which, like spiders, hung their dusty cobweb-folds even 
in such a king's palace as the mind of Mansfield. This 
great man at last yielded to Sharp's resistless argument, 
and came out and settled the principle for ever. Trace 
this history through, to admire and imitate his motives, 
his persevering and painful study. Be benefactors of 
your race ; be deep, profound thinkers. See the array 
of public sentiment against him ; and see the triumph 
of principle. Behold its effects now in the West Indies 
and in America. The first of August stands closely 
connected, not in time, but as effect to cause, with the 
efforts of that noble mind. 






OBLIGATIONS OF YOUNG MEN. 91 



Fellow Christians ! I take this occasion to commend 
to you the interests of the British and Foreign 
Young men's Society. Its objects are worthy your 
ardent affection. They are comprehended in the im- 
provement of youthful hearts and minds. Anticipate 
what they may be. Perhaps to-night a strong desire 
for self-improvement is aroused, but, without your aid, 
aroused in vain. To what nobler object can you de- 
vote hundreds of pounds than to feed those minds, and 
train these patriots and philanthropists ? 






SERMON IV. 






JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 



For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save 
that which was lost. Luke xix. 10. 



The meaning of that word — lost, is the separating 
point, from which diverge the most important senti- 
ments, that divide the nominally Christain world. It 
affects essentially all our religious sentiments, charac- 
ter, and career. If one sees in it only a flourish of 
rhetoric, or an oriental exaggeration, then his conscience 
slumbers ; then his sympathies feel no deep appeal 
from man's condition and prospects ; and then his 
heart lies chilled beneath the cold moon-beams of the 
gospel. To him, that gospel opens, on the one hand, 
no thrilling scene of spirits fallen, denied, benighted 
and accursed ; and, on the other, no enrapturing dis- 
play of love, of condescension lower than angels had 
dared to anticipate, of mercy's immeasurable sacrifice, 
made despite of base ingratitude and of parricidal re- 
bellion. To him the gospel is a description of good- 
ness similar to, but no greater than that displayed in 
the ordinary gifts of Providence. 

Such is the theory, and such are the fruits, of the 
sceptical and semi-sceptical philosophy. Wherever it 
is accepted, the distinction between man's native pow- 



94 SERMON IV. 

ers and sensibilities, and his actual character as a sub- 
ject of God's government, is lost sight of; human 
nature is admired almost to adoration ; repentance, as 
that deep emotion which breaks the heart and bruises 
the spirit, is despised. Thus, whatever other " sacri- 
fices" are offered to God, among them is not found a 
" broken heart and a bruised spirit." Thus it acts on 
the personal piety of the individual, and thus it affects 
his influence on others. In himself he finds more to 
admire than to condemn ; when he discovers wrong, he 
considers it superficial ; no deep and painful sense of 
spiritual necessity, corresponding with descriptions in 
the Bible, is felt. Calm self-complacency is, indeed, 
the very feeling which he seeks to derive from religion. 
And, if he sees any thing else and opposite in others, it 
causes only contempt, or pity. He approves not their 
deep and pungent convictions of guilt and misery, nor 
comprehends how the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of 
God is needed for his guilt, and the regenerating power 
of the Holy Ghost for his depravity. 

The fundamental error with such is on two points, 
and respects two aspects of human nature ; — man as 
the subject of law ; and man in his capacity for a spir- 
itual life. 

Their views of man's guilt and ill-desert are com- 
paratively slight. They allow him to be satisfied with 
the contemplation of his own excellence, his intellectual 
qualities, his social feelings, his moral sensibilities. 
They hold in abhorrence only certain crimes against 
civil laws and social order. They excite, and they 
allow, no deep and heart breaking convictions for spir- 
itual offences ; they arouse no fears of endless punish- 
ment. They go to the neglecter of religion, and per- 






JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 95 



suade him to become more attentive to religious truths 
and duties. They go to the pagan, and urge him to 
embrace a purer rite, a more rational theology. Their 
appeals are not made to the conscience, to start it from 
deep slumbers, and make it echo the thunders of 
coming judgment. And when they rind it awakened, 
they proclaim to it no peace-speaking sacrifice for sin ; 
in fact, they censure this very alarm, and attribute it to 
ignorance and error. Hence, they find nothing in 
man's prospects to enlist deeply their own solicitude. 
Hence, they accord not with us in our endeavors to 
awaken a slumbering world by strong appeals, to make 
it hear — amid what they call its innocent amusements 
and occupations — the voice of an insulted Deity, of an 
outraged Father, of the threatening majesty of Heaven. 

Thus we differ from them in our estimate of the ex- 
tent and purity of the precepts of the divine law. We 
consider all the world as its guilty violators ; we con- 
sider all human virtue, in man's unconverted state, as 
truly sin ; and the more sinful, the more it becomes an 
object of admiration to its possessor, and an occasion 
of undervaluing the mediation and propitiatory sacri- 
fice of the Son of God. 

Equally antipathetic are our views of man's spiritual 
character. Of the dignity of his original character and 
position, of the noble character of some of the senti- 
ments of a few, we have as high an estimate as any. 
But we believe, that the spiritual image of God is 
effaced from the human soul ; man is fallen, terribly, 
desperately fallen ; the gold has lost its lustre. His 
virtues are to us the white exteriors, and the gilded 
ornaments of the sepulchre. His smiles are to us the 
more painful, as they convince us that he is, or tries to 



96 SERMON IV. 

be, contented with his state of spiritual poverty, guilt 
and degradation. In a word, we consider man as alien- 
ated from God; intellectually and physically alive, 
spiritually dead. And, therefore, we cannot content 
ourselves, by endeavoring to refine and elevate a few 
of the most highly favored of our race ; we must reach 
all men. They are all wanderers from the home of 
the soul — the bosom of God ; and they must all be 
persuaded to return. The malady of sin lies deeply 
fixed in the immortal part — the soul ; and, therefore, 
intellectual elevation and social refinement do not re- 
move it, and- have no tendency to remove it. We re- 
gard the gospel, applied by God's Spirit, as the sole 
remedy. Christ is their life ; — Christ, the Lamb of 
God that taketh away the sin of the world ; — Christ, 
the ever-living intercessor ; — Christ, the medium and 
fountain of the life-giving Spirit. The world — all the 
world, high and low, princes and peasants, learned and 
ignorant, virtuous and vicious, idolaters, infidels, and 
nominal Christians — must believe in Christ, or "be 
damned f damned at that tribunal where believers 
shall be pardoned ; damned by the malediction of the 
Holy One, who appears « in the glory of his Father, 
taking vengeance on them that obey not the gospel." 

From these different estimates of man arise, what 
should not arise, hostile feelings ; but hence arise also, 
necessarily, our different courses with regard to man. 
With our views, we shall never be satisfied, without 
the most strenuous efforts to bring all mankind to re- 
pentance and faith in Christ. With their views, they 
naturally look, with indifference, on the earnestness 
and self-denial of missionary life, and the success of 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 97 

missionary enterprise, so far as the work of the Spirit 
of God upon the heart is concerned. 

It behooves us then to review our premises. The 
sincere mind is ever ready to ask, — "Am I right?" 
We are willing to ask and wait candidly for the reply 
to these questions ; — " How must I regard human na- 
ture, myself and my fellow men ? — What is my highest 
duty with respect to my immortal self, and what with 
respect to my fellow men ?" Nay ; we are not taking 
up this subject for the first time. We have already 
decided, and felt, and acted upon it. We, who have 
embarked in the missionary enterprise, are a small 
minority of the civilized world, perhaps a minority even 
of the religious world. We have spent large sums of 
money, yea squandered wealth, if we are wrong ; we 
are still doing it, and we are arousing the churches to 
intenser feeling, and more liberal effort. We desire to 
consecrate our very selves to this enterprise. Life is 
rapidly passing away, and we are devoting its best 
hours and energies to this work. Some of our number 
have severed every tie of home and nation, and adopted 
a life of exile and privation ; wisely, if our views of 
man are truth ; madly and miserably, if they are error. 
This night, we are assembled to sympathize with an- 
other, who has ventured his temporal all upon the truth 
of our sentiments. We together look upon the situation 
of mankind, apart from the provisions of the gospel, and 
away from its influences, as inconceivable dreadful 
and desperate. Our souls are moved with deep com- 
passion, our hearts are oppressed, as we contemplate his 
present state and his prospects beyond this life. We 
want to rush to his rescue. Are we right, or are we 
wrong ? Are these emotions excited in view of truth 



98 SERMON IV. 

and stern reality, or by a delusion of our own imagina- 
tions ? Have we yielded to the influence of an unen- 
lightened education ; or is it in view of facts, that we 
are impelled and that we act 7 We desire truth, and 
only truth. We desire to see things now, as far as 
practicable, as we shall see them, when the illusions 
of time shall have given place to the light of eternity. 
We have also a desire to vindicate our course to an in- 
telligent world ; and, if we are right, to become, in our 
turn, the reprovers of its unbelieving indifference. And 
we may by divine blessing accomplish one other 
good, by our meditations on this subject ; — even that 
of guarding our hearts against the chills of unbelief, 
and of quickening in them a deeper sympathy, stronger 
zeal, and holier purposes. 

Brethren ! we spend this tender and sacred hour in 
contemplating, devoutly, 

Jesus, the Great Missionary. 
He is the Judge that ends the strife. He is the "Logos, 5 ' 
the Truth. All his views were truth, all his sentiments 
righteousness. There was, even in his finite human 
nature, no error in theory, no misapprehension of facts, 
no exaggerated impulse, no passion. He says that he 
" came to seek and to save that which was lost." That 
looks to us like calling him, the Great Missionary, the 
Pattern of all missionaries, the Founder of our mission- 
ary institutions. We go forth to seek and to save that 
which is lost ; and we believe, that our views, and our 
course, are an imitation of his, and an obedience to his 
last command, — « Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature." 

We propose then to examine the meaning of the term 
" lost," as here employed, by the views, which Jesus 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 99 

entertained of men, and by his conduct toward them ; 
-By, 

I. His estimate of man. What extent of mean- 
ing did he attach to the term " lost" ? 

1. He regarded man as a depraved and apostate 
spirit. Depraved and apostate are relative terms, refer- 
ring to a certain standard of perfection and excellence. 
Man was made for great moral purposes, to conform to 
a type of perfect excellence, to attain great heights of 
moral elevation. Such was in fact the original, native 
tendency of his constitution. And there is his dignity. 
Now if the Savior considered the present state of man 
as conformed to that type, then he did not regard him 
as depraved and apostate. And, happily, we are left to 
no conjectures here. We have something better too 
than dry and uncertain etymologies. Whenever we 
can ascertain what Jesus considered holiness and the 
spiritual life to be, then we can tell, from our own 
knowledge of man, what he considered to be his actual 
state. And yet better ; we may know directly what 
opinions he had on this subject. His ideas of holiness 
are seen in his own character and actions ; of which it 
might be enough here to say, that all men consider 
them perfect, and yet totally unlike those of any other 
man. One has well said of him : " To God, as the 
source of his spiritual life, was his soul ever turned ; 
and this direction of his mind was a matter of indis- 
pensable necessity to him. It was his meat and his 
drink to do the will of his Father. Without uniting 
himself wholly to God, consecrating himself to God 
unreservedly, feeling himself to be perfectly one with 
God, he could not have lived, he could not have 
been at peace in his spirit a single instant. By this 



100 :l sermon iy. ir 

means the morality of Jesus became perfectly reli- 
gious; it was not merely- something which flowed 
from a sense of duty, it was a holy sentiment of the 
heart." Now whom did Jesus regard as possessing 
that spiritual life which consists in rising above created 
good to live in God, to feast on his smile, and breathe 
the atmosphere of his love ? Was it the poor idolater 
of the surrounding pagan tribes ? Was it the proud, 
sanctimonious Pharisee, inwardly full of putrefaction 
as the grave ? Was it the infidel, sensual Sadducee, 
who ridiculed all pretensions to spiritual communion I 
Was it the crowd who followed him, not for truth and 
spiritual aliment, but for bread? Was it the rich 
young ruler, so amiable, so pure, so sincere, who went 
away sorrowful when he learned, that God and mam- 
mon cannot be loved and served together ? Nay, was 
it the half-converted Peter, whom he rebuked as fearing, 
in the spirit of Satan, the sacrifice of self ; or John and 
James, who then looked, in serving God, for the hon- 
ors of a temporal kingdom ? Was it, in a word, the 
being, of whom it is recorded, that Jesus " knew what 
was in man," and therefore trusted not himself to him 1 
Oh ! no ; the Son of God walked like a living man 
among the tombs ; and the silence of the second death 
had reigned there for ever, if his own omnipotent voice 
had not cried — " Lazarus ! come forth." 

We have another exhibition of the Savior's views 
of what constitutes the spiritual life, in his benedictions. 
" Blessed are the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, the 
peace-makers, they who hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness, they who love him more than parents and 
possessions ; nay, that forsake aH things, even life itself, 
for His sake and the gospel's." Now, can we believe, 






JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 101 



that he considered mankind generally in his day, or, 
that he considers the men of this, or of any other period, 
as pure in heart, peace-makers, seeking spiritual good 
with an eagerness like that of the corporeal appetites ; 
seeking their rest in God, as the weary body seeks its 
couch ; longing for God, as the hunted hart pants for 
the water brook, or as the shipwrecked mariner longs 
for morning light ? Can mankind generally say sin- 
cerely, " My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living 
God ?" Impossible. 

Our Savior again presents the standard of human 
excellence : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, soul, mind and strength, and thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." And did he think that idolaters, the 
profane, the neglecters of God's service, those who love 
pleasure more than God, the proud, the covetous, the 
sensual ; — did he believe, that they were good, when 
compared with that standard — thou shalt love God 
supremely and perfectly? Or as the envious, am- 
bitious, fraudulent, cruel, tyrannical, impure slanderers 
love others as themselves ? Do they in India, Africa, 
Europe, America ? Did they in any part or age of the 
world ? Ask history. It is indeed too generally the 
record of the powerful . But it shows what all would 
do, if their circumstances permitted. And have the 
powerful been good ? Have their lives been examples 
of piety 1 Have their energies been consecrated to the 
public welfare ? There has been a Cyrus, an Aristides, 
a Joshua, a St. Louis, an Alfred. But they are the 
exceptions. The history of kingdoms is a record of 
wars and their horrors, of frauds and oppressions. 
What says the social state of mankind ? Let the condi- 
tion of woman, in all the lands where human nature has 

9* 



102 SERMON IV. 

acted out its unobstructed tendencies, speak. What 
is a Turkish wife, an Indian mother, a Hindoo widow ? 
Come home, then, to the criminal codes, and criminal 
courts, and criminal establishments of Christian Amer- 
ica. Leave the poetry of the parlor ; lay down that 
enchanting book which enraptures you with its visions 
of human dignity and loveliness ; leave that circle of 
refinement, where a favored few have separated them- 
selves from the vulgar, to enjoy a higher intellectual 
and social life ; and come with me out among the mass 
of this moving population. Let us go into the lanes 
and alleys, the alms-houses, the hospitals, the prisons. 
Shrink not, admirer of human nature ! this is man, 
godlike man. Do you know, that thousands of the 
very children of this city are liars, thieves, impure, 
profane? And what of the pagan world? Oh!. let 
the missionary tell you, who, having gone out to make 
common interest with the heathen, has examined 
deeply into his character. Here are nearly five hundred 
millions ; and yet the portrait in the first chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans remains fearfully accurate. And 
does this being, man, remain as he was, when, coming 
pure and perfect from his Creator's hands, he was pro- 
nounced very good ? 

And what commission have diseases and death in 
this fair world ? Who opened the door, by which they 
rushed in upon their prey ? Did God make man for 
this? You must say, "Yes." The Bible says, "by 
sin. death entered into the world ; and so death passed 
upon all men, for that all have sinned." Each breath 
that you draw marks the death of three of your race. 
The first may be the lovely bride, decked for the altar ; 
the next, the father of a dependent family ; the next, 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 103 

the sovereign, who has been the father of his people. 
No place is so exalted, none so sacred, that disease can- 
not invade it. No tie is so tender, and so precious, 
that death will spare it. And when you visit the 
burial-yard, ask whether or not man is as God made 
him ! Was he made to be the slave of Satan ; the 
sport of tempests and the prey of death ? Was he made 
for poverty and filth, for rags and woe 1 Oh ! no ; he 
is fallen. The race is fallen. 

If we want another test, we have it, in the pure wor- 
ship, which Jesus rendered the Father. Place this by 
the side of human religions. The greater part of them 
are bloody, and seem to have preserved the tradition, 
that, " without shedding of blood, is no remission" of 
sins. But they are also impure, and thus declare the 
deep apostacy of man, when his very religions remove 
him farther from God and holiness. If he makes a 
Jupiter, he is a monster of lust ; a Mars, he drives his 
chariot over the dying ; a Mercury, he is chief of rob- 
bers ; a Juggernaut, he feasts on mangled human limbs. 
And when a pure revelation is given to him, first in a 
single nation, he turns backward ever towards idolatry ; 
and when Christianity is given to the nations, they 
pervert and pervert it, until, of the two hundred and 
fifty millions who possess it, one hundred and ninety 
millions are sunk in superstition, and idolatry little 
better than paganism itself. The moral condition of 
France and Spain and Italy, the history of religious 
persecutions conducted in the name of Jesus Christ, 
and as the expansion of his spirit, and as obedience to 
his precepts, appear to us sad confirmations of the truth 
of our view, that man is lost, because he is a depraved 
and apostate creature. 



104 SERMON IV. 

We learn again our Savior's estimate of men, in the 
direct expression of his views. And here we are at a 
loss to select ; for the full exhibition of all that is con- 
tained in the Evangelists, on this point, would be but 
piling passage on passage. He describes the condition 
and prospects of man in parables, and in simple historic 
language, in ways that appear to us impossible to mis- 
apprehend. If man is an apostate and depraved crea- 
ture ; then we shall expect to hear that the way to 
heaven is of difficult attainment, and entered but by 
few. If man is not an apostate, but an innocent, up- 
right, pure being ; then he has only to obey his instincts, 
to cultivate his noble nature, and he is holy and happy. 
It surely cannot be difficult to decide what Jesus 
thought on that point. " Broad is the way that leadeth 
to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat," 
while " narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and 
few there be that find it." " If any man will come 
after me, let him" what 1 cultivate his good heart ? — : 
no, " deny himself." And in how many ways does he 
describe us, as poor, and miserable, and blind, and 
sick, and weary, burdened, imprisoned, enslaved, dead, 
exposed to endless destruction ? If not sick, we have 
no need of him ; if not sinners, he has no message to 
us ; for " they that are whole need not a physician, but 
they that are sick." In his conversation with Nico- 
demus, he says, that we must be regenerated, and that 
whoever is not, cannot be saved. And mark his em- 
phatic reason ; " that which is born of the flesh, is flesh." 
By our natural birth, we inherit only that, which can- 
not inherit heaven. In the natural birth, there is a 
terrible entailment of degeneracy ; so that there needs 
a supernatural birth, a birth of the Spirit. With all 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 105 

this in view, it is impossible to believe, that Jesus re- 

5 garded man as a refined, noble, elevated being ; as in 

1 his present state, the type of perfection. He never says 

it, he never intimates it. We look in vain for passages 

1 in all his addresses, as well as in all the writings of 

! his disciples, to find a language, or a sentiment, like 

that, which we constantly hear, about the purity, and 

nobleness, and virtue of individual men. 

But, in this connection, we cannot pass by the por- 
trait of man given in the story of the prodigal son. Its 
very object was to reprove the self-righteous men, who 
thought they had done no wrong, and had not wan- 
dered from their father's house. We cite this here 
particularly, because the very term whose meaning we 
seek, is the hinge of the story. Here was one lost to 
his father. There is something in the word — lost, 
which falls on our ear like a death-knell. It presents 
to us the twofold idea contained in this story, and in 
the two in its context ; that of disappointment to God's 
affectionate interest for us, and to our own hopes of 
blessedness. Observe the word lost illustrated here 
three times. The shepherd has lost his sheep, than 
which nothing is dearer to him ; the woman, her means 
of living ; the father, his son. Observe this picture 
of man ; a wanderer — a wanderer from home, from God, 
from heaven, and infinite love. The son of a kind 
and wealthy man feels the temptings of ambitious inde- 
pendence, and yields to their influence. He leaves the 
paternal roof, to escape the paternal eye. He gathers 
all, and goes into a far country, to find his happiness. 
But it was there that " he began to be in want." It 
was there that he plunged from one depth to deeper 
depths of misery. Poor young man ! we pity him ; 



106 SERMON IV. 

we blame him too. But, alas ! we are speaking of 
ourselves. This is the portrait of the race. Fellow- 
men ! we are in that far country ; we are lost to God 
and to ourselves. Yes, he says it ; — for, behold yon 
shepherd ! what does he in the wild and desert place, 
exposing himself to pains and dangers ? Oh ! he comes 
" to seek and to save that which was lost." Yes, we 
are lost to God ;— for, behold that aged and injured 
father, running to meet the wandering boy when yet a 
great way off; falling on his neck, embracing, kissing 
him, exclaiming, " This, my son, was dead and is alive 
again, was lost, and is found ;" — lost to the angels ; for 
there is joy in heaven over one repenting sinner. Our 
noble faculties, our affections are lost to God ; for we 
neither love, praise, nor serve him ; and in place of 
preparing to dwell in his blessed family, we force him 
to pronounce, and execute on us, the fearful sentence 
of his law. That young man returned ; but not 
until he was convinced of his guilt and folly, — not 
until he felt that he was in want. Had any one met 
him there, and convinced him that he had not wan- 
dered, then he had never returned. That young 
man returned ; and heaven is to be re-peopled by these 
returning, repenting prodigals. And will there be 
there any elder sons of Adam's family, who have never 
wandered? We believe not. That man is a depraved 
and apostate creature, is written on every line of the 
Savior's biography, and on every syllable of his in- 
structions. But, 

2. He regarded man also as a condemned criminal. 
According to his saying to Nicodemus, u He that be- 
lieveth not, is condemned already." This was said, in 
connection with a comparison of man's moral condition 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 107 

with the physical state of the Israelites, who were bitten 
by the fiery serpents. They, says the Savior, were to 
be healed, by looking at the uplifted symbol of God's 
righteous judgments against their sins ; so we, who are 
dying beneath the righteous anger of God, are to be 
healed by believing on Him, who was lifted up for us 
on the accursed tree. But whoever believes not, re- 
mains in his state of condemnation. This condemna- 
tion includes two facts — that of transgression, and that 
of punishment. Jesus did regard men as sinners. Our 
ideas of sin are superficial and unimpressive ; those of 
Jesus were deep and awful. He traced each outward 
sin to the heart, the fountain of spiritual death ; and he 
detected sin in the heart, where no outward sign was 
given to man. And he showed, that it were better to 
lose limb and life, reputation and each dear interest of 
earth, than to remain a sinner ; for sin is the transgres- 
sion of the law, of God's holy law. It is a terrible thing 
to infringe the laws, that control the material world. 
For, says a French preacher, " though the sea should 
burst its limits, and cover the earth with a new deluge; 
though its furious waves should overturn and sweep 
away every thing in their passage ; though they should 
roll down, with their fracas, the rocks rent from the 
mountains, the uprooted trees, the dead bodies of men 
and animals, and should make of our globe only a wa- 
tery waste; the disorder, thus produced, would not 
deserve to be named, by the side of that which sin pro- 
duces. Though the world should totter on its ancient 
base, and reel from its foundations ; though the stars 
and their systems should rush into wild disorder, and 
dash against each other ; and the universe revert to a 
more frightful chaos than that from which God brought 



108 SERMON IV. 

it at the beginning- ; this disorder, this overturning of all 
material things, would not deserve to be compared with 
the disorder that sin produces." And this, because the 
one is the disorder of ignoble and perishable matter ; 
the other is the ruin of mind. 

Not only has sin taken possession of the heart of 
man ; but, without supernatural aid, that possession 
must be indefinitely permanent. There is no tendency 
in human depravity towards self-recovery and perfec- 
tion. In all that we have known of it, its course is ever 
downward, downward, and for ever downward ! Sin 
never yet exhausted itself in this world, nor in one 
heart. Every instance of recovery from its dominion 
is called by Jesus, the conquest of a strong man armed, 
by a stronger than he. 

And while man is thus a sinner, — a transgressor of 
law, he is exposed to eternal death. If the warnings 
and expostulations of Christ do not teach this, then 
they are to us without meaning. "Wo unto thee, 
Chorazin ! wo unto thee, Bethsaida ! for it shall be 
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, at the day of judg- 
ment, than for you." " And thou, Capernaum ! which 
art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell." 
" What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give 
in exchange for his soul ?" " There shall be weeping 
and gnashing of teeth." Dives after death, " in hell, 
lifted up his eyes, being in torments." The net and 
fishes, the wise and foolish virgins, the wheat and tares, 
the separation of the sheep and goats, the treatment of 
the unfaithful steward, all tell us what he believes con- 
cerning man's eternal destiny. But nothing that he 
uttered is more terrible, than the declaration, that he 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 109 

himself will say at last to the wicked, "Depart from 
me, ye cursed ! into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
devil and his angels." Men may close their ears, and 
shut their eyes against this ; but it is the word of God, 
Men may refuse to hear it ; but there it stands a yet 
unfulfilled prophecy, made, if possible, more certain to 
us, by the past fulfilment of the others, which surround 
it. Yes, as certain as was the destruction of Babylon 
and Tyre, the deluge of water, and the flood of fire on 
a guilty world ; as certain and as terrible as was the 
destruction of Jerusalem, will be the utterance and exe- 
cution of those terrific words. And as idle and impo- 
tent will be the scoffs and self-reasonings of this day, as 
were those of that day, to arrest the judgments of God. 
But who can measure their meaning ? " Cursed /" It 
is terrible to be cursed by a man, a wicked man, with- 
out cause ; but to be cursed by a Father, by a being 
who never errs in judgment, — a being who never con- 
demns unjustly, — a being, who suffered to save us, — a 
being, who has long expostulated in view of this very 
judgment, — a being, who commands the elements of the 
universe to execute his purposes, — a being, who ranks 
his glorious perfections to flash conviction to the centre 
of my guilty conscience ! — You say, l this is extrava- 
gant ;' but it is scriptural. You say, c it is cruel ;' but, 
whether is it cruelty to flatter and deceive and hide im- 
pending danger, or to expose it fully and earnestly. 

Men are to be cursed. What is this curse ? A 
charge to the universe to dry up each fountain of de- 
light, and open on my guilty soul its avenging streams. 
What does this curse ? " It strips the world, external, 
and internal, of love and sympathy for my poor heart, 
nature of its charms, earth of its fruit, the heavens of 

10 



110 SERMON IV. 

their blessings, existence of its joys, and dries up the 
last drop of happiness in the last fold of my heart ; seals 
Up the door of heaven against my spirit, and blots out 
the star of hope. When this terrific word falls from 
the lips of the blessed Jesus, it forbids an angel-wing 
ever to flit by my dear abode ; " it withers up my soul 
to its root, like that unfortunate tree which the breath 
of the Lord cursed, and of which an Apostle said, the 
next day, in astonishment — Lord ! the fig-tree that thou 
cursedst, is withered away." What must this curse, 
this banishment be ? No tongue can tell, no imagina- 
tion now conceive. Christ has warned us, with a so- 
lemnity, that may well intimidate and arouse. We can 
conceive of it, as nothing less than eternal banishment, 
from light and life and hope, to regions " prepared for 
the devil and his angels," where the soul " shall be en- 
veloped and penetrated with a misery immense, infinite ; 
where it shall find nothing more in all beings, but a 
universal hell ; a hell within, a hell without, a hell in 
God himself." 

" The Son of man came to seek and to save that 
which was lost" — lost to God, to itself, to heaven, to 
hope, to purity, peace, and love, — lost for ever ! One 
Scripture-phrase concentrates the whole truth ; man 
«0e0$, without God. He was made in the image of God, 
made for him : made holy and perfect, filled with light 
and pure affection. Then his eye beheld the glory of 
God. Then he groped not in that darkness, which 
now surrounds him ; then he pined not beneath the 
maladies and miseries and mortality, which now afflict 
him. 

I have said, that we have more exalted views of man, 
than either the sceptic, or semi-sceptic philosophy con- 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. Ill 

tain. We have. We believe in his original dignity ; 
and we have such views of that, that man, in his pre- 
sent state, is a source of constant distress to us ; and we 
desire perpetually to be proclaiming in his hearing, the 
dignity he has lost. We would say perpetually to him, 
as we should to the degenerate descendant of a noble 
family, still wearing their name and title, and even imi- 
tating their lofty bearing ; ' Shame, shame on thee ! 
Thy name, thy palace, thy lordly mien, are all thy re- 
proach.' We have such exalted views also of the per- 
fectibility of man, that we cannot endure to see the 
world, contenting itself with any thing short of the 
image of God, and of perfect communion with him. 
Man was a noble being, when God said of him — he is 
good. But he aspired too high ; he tried to become a 
centre of light and strength and happiness to himself, 
and to be independent of God. He withdrew from 
God's spiritual dominion, and God abandoned his spirit- 
ual nature to itself, and made him, in his wretchedness, 
a spectacle to himself and to the universe. The brute 
creation have fled him, for he has become their enemy; 
the very earth has felt the blighting curse that lighted 
on him. He was chased from Eden's happy garden, and 
the cherub-sentry with naming sword still stands to bar 
his return. Happy Eden ! scene of our sweet commun- 
ion with God ; happy Eden ! witness of our dignity 
and of our blessedness ; thou art lost to us, and we to 
thee ! My brethren ! we are strong and high believers 
in the dignity of human nature. No man shall deprive 
us of this our boasting ; yet, not in human nature as it 
is, but as it was, and as by grace it may become. As 
he is, man is lost. And we want to sit down, by the 
side of every brother of the human race, and weep with 



112 SERMON IV, 

him for the crown which has fallen from our brow, the 
home and the heaven which we have lost. ' We want 
to undo the deceiving of his pride, and sigh and pray 
with him for the recovery of our birth-right. 

But are the heathen, who have not our light, exposed 
to perdition? A careless world, unwilling to make 
thorough inquiry into the condition and prospects of 
other men, complacently wraps itself in the mantle of 
an imagined charity, and says, 'The mercy of God 
will never consign them to endless punishment, when 
they have sincerely done their best according to the 
light they enjoy.' And there, indeed, we are agreed 
with the world ; but we are forced to stop there ; for 
we have too many proofs, that there are but few of 
them who will have that plea. We find even a part 
of the church, though unable to hope much for the pa- 
gan world, yet unwilling to adopt the harsh conclusion, 
that these hundreds of millions are rushing blindly to 
endless ruin ; and preferring to rest in a vague hope 
that it will not be so, rather than to search the Scrip- 
tures to ascertain, if God has given us any instruction 
on the subject, and imposed upon us any responsibility 
in the matter. 

Here we shall fail of time for a solemn topic. The 
sneers of the world terrify us not in such a matter. 
The charge of cruelty troubles not our conscience, 
while we seek not to make their destruction a fact, but 
to ascertain whether they are really exposed to destruc- 
tion, in order that we may aid them to escape it. In- 
deed, if we were not distrustful of our own imperfect 
motives, we should say that ours is the true charity, 
which welcomes evidence, though it bring us to the 
results of distressing sympathy and of self-denying 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 113 

labor. We are inclined to suspect the depth of that 
charity, which, to save its possessor pain, and spare 
him labor, settles a great principle of the divine gov- 
ernment, a great future fact, not by examining God's 
testimony, but by appealing to a mere human sensi- 
bility. If we consult our sympathies, we say, "The 
poor pagans will not go to a miserable eternity ; but 
where they will go we know not.' But when we ask, 
* What has God asserted on this subject ?" we rise from 
the answer with heavy hearts. The cry of the perish- 
ing then swells on our ear — l Come over and help us,' — 
until we wish for a thousand tongues to proclaim to 
them the way of life. 

An outline of God's testimony is all that we can now 
present. If we examine their lives, considered in the 
light of a disciplinary, probationary, or preparatory 
state, we cannot believe, that they go to heaven. They, 
as well as we, must be regenerated, and that in this 
world. But we find them, as in Paul's day, infanti- 
cides, liars, adulterers, covenant-breakers7 bestial, sen- 
sual, devilish, murderers of mothers. All this seems to 
us a preparation, not for heaven, but for perdition. We 
find them too, just what the Canaanites were, whom 
God in his anger swept from the earth, but surely not 
into heaven. They are idolaters, if there ever were 
any; and God declares, that such cannot enter the 
kingdom of heaven. Again, to believe that they are in 
the way to heaven, is to regard all the Apostle's anxie- 
ties and labor for their salvation as unfounded, extrava- 
gant, and useless. And again ; the Apostle has fully 
reasoned out the case in two places. In the one, he 
shows that they sin against their light, as we do against 
ours. In the other, this in his missionary argument — 

10* 



114 SERMON IV. 

" For whosover shall call on the name of the Lor 
shall be saved. How then shall they call on him i 
whom they have not believed ? and how shall they be 
lieve in him of whom they have not heard ? and how 
shall they hear, without a preacher? and how shall 
they preach, except they be sent." No, my brethren ! 
it may be natural sympathy, or it may be distrust of 
God's testimony which says, < Let the heathen alone V 
but it is not enlightened piety. 

Then we are right in our estimate of man ; then we 
should not be dazzled by his external appendages, his 
intellectual and social traits. Then we may say to the 
higher and lower Deistic philosophies, — c Your boast is 
vain, when you claim the exclusive admiration of hu- 
man nature ; for we have higher views than either of 
you. You would satisfy man with certain social ex- 
cellencies, certain pagan virtues, certain moral senti- 
ments, which have little or no reference to God ; but 
we believe, that man was made to live in God, and to 
reHect his image to the universe. You are teaching 
him to aspire to an intellectual millennium ; we are 
aiming to prepare the world to return to the love of God 
and a spiritual life. We hold, too, the key that unlocks 
the deep mystery of man's present condition. A French 
writer of your school says — " I resemble, O Lord, the 
night-globe, which in the obscure path where thy finger 
leads it, reflects from the one side, eternal light, and on 
the other is plunged in mortal shades." " How abject, 
how august," says one of another school, " how com- 
plicate, how wonderful is man !" There is something 
great in man, and something abject. To us the mys- 
tery is solved. Man was great, good, god-like in his 
powers and in his character ; but he is fallen in char- 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 115 

acter, and in that fall has dragged down his powers 
and native sentiments ; leaving, like a volcanic rupture, 
fragments of an Eden, scattered flowers that live here 
an exotic life. 

We shall now consider, much more briefly, Jesus as 
our pattern, 

II. In his Treatment op Men. 

We see in what light he regarded man ; and how his 
holy soul was moved with compassion towards him. 
We now demand, < What did his compassion lead him 
to do ?' If to make great sacrifices, then his views of 
man's lost estate must have been very strong ; for al- 
though it may be love, it is also foolish love, that makes 
a greater sacrifice and effort for another, than his neces- 
sities demand. But when a being of infinite intelli- 
gence makes great sacrifices, — greater than we are 
capable of estimating ; the evidence is complete, that 
the misery, threatening, or actually affecting those 
whom he aids, is equally immeasurable by us. 

On the subject of the condescension and sacrifices 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the language of the Bible is 
deep, mystic, suggestive. He had a glory with the 
Father before the world was, but he left it. " What 
was that glory ?" — we want to ask — " where, and how 
did he leave it in becoming a man V The veil of 
flesh hides it from our sight. He was rich ; when, 
where, in what ? The clouds and darkness of an infi- 
nite majesty rest around his person, and hide from fee- 
ble mortals the splendors of his primitive empire. But 
he became poor. He took on him or was invested with 
flesh. Then he was, before he was flesh ; he was be- 
fore Abraham ; he was David's root and Lord, before, 
he was his offspring and successor. Mysterious Ian- 



116 SERMON IV. 



guage ! He took on him, at the very instant when 
angels were adoring him as the only begotten of the 
Father, the form of a servant ; and came to be despised 
and rejected, to hear hisses and taunts and blasphemies, 
instead of hosannas and hallelujahs. He exchanged 
heaven's diadem for Judea's thorns, and the robes of 
light for Pilate's faded and discarded garment ; he for- 
sook the palace where he was sovereign, for the judg- 
ment-hall, where he was bound and buffeted, and 
scourged, and condemned. He left his body-guard of 
holy and mighty angels, to be at the mercy of wicked 
and puny mortals who hated him. He was the Lord 
of the universe, but he was born of one of the lowliest 
inhabitants of earth's obscurest corner. He was prince 
of life, but he tasted death for every man. This the 
Scriptures call his sacrifice for man's salvation. But 
they make all this the lightest feature of the image of 
his cross. When they would start our imaginations 
on the path to his expiatory sufferings, they drop a few 
phrases, which are not so much intended to instruct as 
to impress and overwhelm us with godly fear and sym- 
pathy. " My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto 
death." What made him sorrowful — so sorrowful? 
Nothing in all that was external around him there : 
nothing that the Evangelists mention. Again ; in the 
garden his bodily frame passes through an unparalleled 
excitement of agony ; but from no apparent adequate 
cause. To attribute it to his fear of crucifixion, or to 
sorrow for his cause and friends, betrays the most en- 
tire disrespect. Again ; his agonizing cry, " Why 
hast thou forsaken me ?" leads us to conjecture, that 
there is something, in what the Son of God endured in 
our stead and for our salvation, which we may under- 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 117 

stand only, when our intellectual powers shall be ex- 
panded by the light, and our moral powers purified by 
the love of heaven. And when Jesus said with em- 
phasis, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son," we understand, that this gift was so 
costly, and there was in some way such an expenditure 
and sacrifice, that, it not only showed God's love to 
man more clearly than all else that he had ever said or 
done, but also, the immensity of that love. And so, 
when the Apostle reasons for the encouragement of 
faith ; " He that spared not his own Son," &c, we un- 
derstand that this not sparing, and freely giving up, 
involve something, which we are now incapable of 
comprehending, but by which God designs to affect our 
hearts, and form- our characters, more powerfully than 
by all his word or works. If the understanding of any 
man forbids the flow of emotion, until this veil is re- 
moved, then his heart will never feel fully, in this life, 
what Paul felt when he said, " The love of Christ con- 
straineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for 
all, then were all dead." We were all dead, and he 
died for the dead ; and in dying, he showed his con- 
viction of our state of spiritual death. 

But we have done with proofs of man's apostate and 
ruined state. It is to us a fact. The Word of God 
declares it. But it also declares another fact. And on 
all this gloomy cloud rests this rain-bow truth — u The 
Son of man came to seek and to save that which was 
lost." Oh ! then, ye scoffing economists ! let us hear 
no more your severe reproofs of our poor expenditures 
of property in the missionary cause. Jesus is the mas- 
ter whom we follow, though at too great a distance ; 
Jesus is the model we imitate, though very imperfectly. 



118 SERMON IV. 

Oh ! then, covetous, selfish professors of Christ's gos- 
pel ! imbibe his spirit, and live and labor and expend 
for the recovery of the lost. Brethren ! I must rise now 
from the attitude of defence, and turn and charge on 
this practical indifference, and on this sceptical philos- 
ophy, positive guilt. Had the Bible contained its pre- 
sent amount of wisdom, in relation to some of men's 
temporal interests, had it determined the great questions 
of finance, how eagerly would they read it, how cor- 
dially believe it ! But as a spiritual book, the one class 
disregard it, and the other look at it as full of exaggera- 
tions. But they should remember, that this is the only 
volume in human language, which God has conde- 
scended to write. And should it not contain deep, 
high, wondrous things ? Is not this one of its very 
marks and seals 1 The Bible is full of paradoxes ; be- 
cause it shows us only fragments of truths, the full 
magnitude and harmony of which we cannot now com- 
prehend. When God teaches man the dignity of his 
origin, philosophy denies it, and makes him the birth 
of chance. When the Bible declares the dignity of 
man's primeval estate, philosophy denies it, and says 
that he is as good, and pure, and happy, as when God 
made him. When God pronounces his fearful sentence 
against sin, philosophy laughs at it, and says " It is ex- 
travagant." When God proclaims the immense price 
of our redemption, she laughs again, and says, " How 
absurd to- make an expiation to himself, and so costly 
a one for such trivial offences." But God knows two 
things, which we do not know, and therefore does two 
things, which we would not do. He knows the de- 
merit of sin, and therefore threatens it with everlasting 
punishment. He knows the value of the soul, and 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 119 

therefore gives his Son for its redemption. Ye, that 
despise this rich gift ! ye, that despise us for our efforts 
to proclaim its story to the world ! let me say to you 
in God's name — " Ye have a double guilt, and must 
meet a twofold condemnation. You believe not, and 
therefore are condemned already. You also rob the 
world of its hope. Your theories and your practice 
would leave mankind in a hopeless condition. You 
dash from the trembling hand of perishing man the 
lamp of life, the cup of salvation. You shatter in pie- 
ces the only barque to which poor human nature can 
commit its hopes for eternity ! What have you proved, 
fellow-man ? At best a negative. You have begun 
and ended with denying. That there is disorder, 
wickedness, misery, you cannot deny. That the world 
is full of it, you cannot deny. And yet you would 
prevent our going to probe this mortal wound, and 
administer God's efficacious remedy. If one finds him- 
self the slave of passion, if his conscience condemns 
him, if he fears that there possibly may be an hour of 
retribution, and an eternity of wretchedness just beyond 
the confines of life — what can you say to this troubled 
spirit ? You can sneer, but can you console ? You 
can reason, but can you suppress the instinctive solici- 
tude for a sure and solid hope of immortal blessedness ? 
It was an instructive scene, when the dying Hindoo, 
representing our common humanity, turned to his priest 
and cried — " Where shall I go when I leave the body?" 
And the priest replied, in the spirit of your philosophy 
and in the pride of ignorance — "Into a bird." But 
when that bird dies, where then ? Into a flower." 
" And where then ?" The priest became weary with 
answering ; but still the soul cried — " And where 



120 SERMON IV. 

then ?" That is the question which must be met — ful- 
ly, definitely and authoritatively answered. To leave 
it unsolved, is to mock and deceive the wretched heart 
of the mourner ; to leave it unsolved, and yet pretend 
to offer the cure for human misery, is charlatanry the 
most detestable. To answer it by conjectures, or to 
meet it with inferences from God's mercy, which every 
groan and tear falsifies, is fraud of the most injurious 
kind. To amuse man with theories, but to leave dark- 
ness on this chief point of all his solicitude, is the glory 
of anti- scriptural philosophy. Just where man most 
wants light, it is darkness. And just there the Bible 
pours the effulgence of eternal day. And not to hail 
that light, not to spread it, is treason to God's mercy, 
treason to our sacred trust, treason to man's highest 
interests. 

But, let me turn a moment, in closing, to you, my 
dear brother ! on this momentous hour of your life, 
when you have come to receive from Jesus, by the 
hands of his unworthy servants, the investment of this 
highest office confided to man. Let me say to you, 

That deep compassion for men should characterize the 
whole spirit of the missionary, and of missionary work. 

Go to the benighted, with as glad a heart as animated 
the angels, when they were commissioned to announce 
the glad tidings of Heaven's great mission of love. 
When your feet shall touch the shores of that distant 
land, sing in the fulness of your spirit — ' Glory to God 
in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward 
man. Be touched, like your High-Priest, with a feel- 
ing of their infirmities. Dwell, in your thoughts, on 
their lost estate ; see them, as the great Shepherd did, 
wandering from the fold ; until your heart bleeds, and 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 121 

breaks with pity. This will animate and sustain yon 
amid difficulties. You can bear them for the sake of 
the miserable, for yours will then be pity tender and 
sustaining, like that of the patient mother by the couch 
of her suffering child. This will make you gentle 
and forbearing and patient, even with a mother's ten- 
derness, and keep you from crushing the bruised reed, 
or quenching the faintly-kindled wick. This will speak 
in heavenly eloquence from your very countenance, 
and melt the gates of brass in the hard heart of man. 
This will give you errands to the mercy-seat, and argu- 
ments before it. This will nerve you to your work, 
when a relaxing climate would tend to unnerve you. 
This will be treading in the footsteps of the Great 
Missionary. 

Let me say again — That the example of Christ is 
the missionary's encouragement. You leave all for 
those whom you would save ; so did he. You mean 
to identify yourself with them in every thing but sin, 
to bear their infirmities and share their sorrows ; so 
did he. You are acting on the great principle, that to 
save from overflowing evil, the good of the universe 
must be diffused, not concentrated; so did he. You 
are going to men, and not waiting for them to come 
to you ; so did he. You are going to seek and to save 
that which is lost, according to the measure imparted 
to you of the Father ; so did he. And you are not 
only laboring like Christ, but also for him, and with 
him. He is seeking these very souls. He once did 
it in person. Now he does it by his Spirit and by his 
people. But his interest is no less now, than when 
his sacred feet were traversing the land, which your 

feet shall traverse, to save the perishing sheep of 

11 



122 SERMON IV. 

Israel's fold. You are going like him to pray in Geth- 
semane ; but he spares your ascent to Golgotha and 
the tree. Go, dear brother ! moisten, with your tears 
for man, the soil, which he moisted when he thought 
of the lost. Go, assured not only that you are seeking 
them for Christ, but that he is seeking them by you, 
and with you. Urge that much, and with much faith 
in your prayers ; it will prevail for many a blessing. 

Let me conclude by saying — That the missionary's 
great work is to persuade men to believe in Christ. 
To effect this, he must commend himself to the con- 
science. Through an awakened conscience, man 
learns his need of Christ. Go then, dear brother ! 
speak to the sleeping conscience of man. Let not 
your attention be fixed upon his peculiarities, his spe- 
cific qualities as an individual man, or his more general 
features of national character, his theories of philoso- 
phy and religion ; but meet him as a man, as a lost 
man ; nay, as one that knows he is lost. If your at- 
tention is drawn only, or chiefly, to his corporeal 
miseries, his social degradation, his intellectual priva- 
tions, you will incur the danger of diverting his and 
your attention from that, which should arouse your 
profounder sympathies, and all his slumbering energies 
of conscience. You must indeed attempt the meliora- 
tion of his intellectual and social state ; but guard 
vigilantly against letting either your or his anxieties 
and efforts terminate there. When you have to meet 
him as the philosopher of another school, you may 
be discouraged at the sincerity and obstinacy, nay 
perhaps, plausibility with which he can confront you. 
But when you meet him in the winning strength of a 
deep sympathy, — you the lost and recovered, him the 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 123 

lost and perishing man, — then you are in your strongest 
attitude, he is in his most defenceless. The mis- 
sionary must speak, from deep experience, to the 
consciousness of guilt, often stifled, never annihilated 
in the impenitent bosom ; to a conscience, often stifled, 
often cheated, never tranquillized by his vain super- 
stitions. Speak, my brother ! now in thunder, now 
in the " still small voice." So God speaks in nature 
and in grace. Man will understand you, when you 
whisper to his conscience. Yet you may awaken 
resistance. The light is painful to them that love 
darkness. And false philosophy, and false religion, 
and practical unbelief, will all be resorted to, to shield 
the conscience. And yet your great work is, to bring 
home to the soul of each man the conviction that he 
is lost. Trouble yourself little, and others still less, 
with theories of human depravity. They may be im- 
portant. They have their place. But whatever else 
they do, they do not awaken the conscience. And if I 
mistake not, more of them have lulled, than have 
awakened it. The facts of depravity and conscience 
are two of the ultimate facts, to be taken as theological 
axioms. God has not proved the existence of either, 
but simply asserted it* And so may we ; both on his 
testimony, and on men's very consciousness. And yet, 
if your brethren entertain themselves with theory* 
making, or deem their theories important, do not there- 
fore separate from them ; only be yourself given to the 
work of saving the lost. Perhaps one of the mightiest 
elements of ministerial power, is the deep conviction 
on the soul, of the lost condition of man. It must 
give fervor and frequency to prayer, and tend greatly 
to produce conviction in others. Your hearer may be 



124 SERMON IV. 

proud and powerful in his philosophy, he may be self- 
complacent in his creed and ceremonies. But whisper 
to his soul, of seasons of shame and self-reproach and 
fear, which forebode impending doom ; and he cannot 
deny, he cannot argue ; for he feels, that he is dealing 
with truth and with God. In your public addresses, 
deal with the conscience, and you will imitate the 
greatest preachers. Study the sermons of Elijah to 
Ahab, of Nathan to David, of Peter to the thousands 
at Jerusalem, of Paul to Felix. There you find no 
flattery of human nature, no general descriptions of 
virtue, but guilt and condemnation described as per- 
taining to them all. Feel that man is lost ; that guilt 
and condemnation and spiritual poverty belong to 
every child of Adam. Proclaim that, on the house-top, 
and in the closet. Man may not have thought of it-, 
but when you suggest it, he sees that it is truth. Give 
him exalted views of human dignity and worth, not 
as it is, but as it was, and may be. Solve the strange 
perplexity of every man's experience ; tell him what 
you know of former conflicts and present conquests ; 
of noble aspirations after heaven and sordid attach- 
ments to earth ; of desires to please God and deter- 
minations to please self. Speak to his love of happiness ; 
he will understand you. And as you solve the mystery 
to his astonished soul, as you describe the symptoms 
of his spiritual malady, as you point him to the balm 
of Gilead, and the great Physician ; a new life of hope 
may begin to infuse itself into his soul. 

Again I say, your great employment is to bring the 
individual souls of men to Christ. Be not diverted 
from this ; be not satisfied short of success in this. If 
you must do other things, consider them collateral and 



JESUS, THE GREAT MISSIONARY. 125 

subordinate to this. Your glorious commission is, to 
seek and save the lost. Be rilled, be fired with the 
spirit of that commission. May you, and may the 
church, and all of us who announce the gospel, be 
more and more filled with that glorious object — the re- 
storation to immortal spirits of the lost image of God, 
and guiding the perishing to an almighty Savior. May 
the Spirit be poured from on high, until the whole 
church sees and feels that these facts are now of chief 
importance ; — man is lost, and the Son of God is seek- 
ing him ; man is lost, and the Son of God is come to 
save him ; man is lost, and the Church is commissioned 
to go forth in the might of faith and prayer to his salva- 
tion. To save the lost ! To-night we talk of it, as 
children talk of the affairs of empires ; we see through 
a glass darkly ; our conceptions are low and limited. 
To save the lost ! Tell us, ye damned spirits ! what 
it means. Tell us, Son of God ! what it means ; — 
what stirred thy soul in Godlike compassion to seek the 
lost. Tell us, ye ransomed and ye faithful spirits who 
never sinned ! — tell us eternity ! — what is this mighty 
work of gospel missions. Tell us, O Father ! tell thy 
churches ; tell thy ministers ; until every slumberer 
awake, every energy be aroused, and the way of life 
be pointed out to a perishing race ! 



SERMON V. 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 



u And the things that thou hast heard of me among 
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful 
men, who shall be able to teach others also" — 
2 Timothy ii. 2. 

Christian friends! 

We are assembled to remind one another of departed 
worth ; not to burn idolatrous incense to human excel- 
lence, nor to forget that her brightest beams were only 
reflected — yea, refracted rays of her Redeemer's glory ; 
but to encourage and animate each other by recalling 
those days, when the Spirit descended from on high, 
to rekindle the fires almost extinguished on the altars 
of the national Church, and by reviving the memories 
of those whose names are dear to the universal Church. 
With the name of the Countess Selina, we associate 
the idea of every thing exalted in Christian character, 
of entire consecration to Christ, of the true spirit of 
Catholicism and enlightened Christian liberality, that 
discriminates the essentials from the non-essentials of 
Christianity, and recognises the family likeness amid 
the vast variety of feature and complexion that indi- 
vidualizes the members of the household of Christ 
We feel ourselves to be standing to day on a broad 



128 SERMON V. 

basis. Our spirits expand beneath the influence of the 
associations, which this anniversary revives. We 
leave the imprisonment of sect, burst its shackles, and 
tread on the confines of the day of love and light so 
long desired. We come, Christian friends ! to cherish 
an Institution dear to the heart of one of God's most 
distinguished servants. We come to sympathize with 
her holy desires, to mature her generous plans, and to 
adapt them to the exigencies of our age, and to the 
ever-varying developments of Providence. We cele- 
brate the anniversary of the Countess of Huntingdon's 
College ; and I feel assured, that however I may fail 
in the expansion of the topic, I have not erred in 
choosing, as the theme of your meditations, the impor- 
tance of learning and piety in the gospel ministry. 
This sentiment was the corner-stone of the College. 
The earnest conviction of its truth led to the generous 
efforts and sacrifices, which founded this Institution. 

The Solemn trust of perpetuating the gospel minis- 
try is committed to the Church. And her responsi- 
bility in the case appears very grave, when we regard 
either the good, or the evil, which has been produced 
respectively by a qualified or an unqualified, by a spir- 
itual or a worldly ministry. The phases of the Church, 
in the successive periods of her history, are a faithful 
reflection of the competency or incompetency, of the 
intellectual and spiritual excellencies or defects of her 
pastors. By them the sacramental host has been train- 
ed for the sacred wars, and led to glorious triumphs ; 
and by them Zion's citadel has been betrayed. They, 
who should have been her defence, have ingloriously 
opened her gates to the enemy, and the sacred place 
has been trodden by the feet of the profane. It was 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 129 

under the guidance of her faithful pastors and evange- 
lists, that she attained her primitive glory ; and it was 
under her vain and fanciful doctors, even in the vaunt- 
ed " primitive Church," that she began to mingle frag- 
ments of pagan philosophy with her pure creed, and 
pagan ceremonies with her simple rights. It was 
again under her learned and scriptural leaders, that she 
came up from the wilderness of papal superstition, and 
error, and slavery, into spiritual light, and life, and lib- 
erty. By her devoted and qualified ministry, she has 
maintained the successful contest with the various 
forms of infidelity at home, obliging it even to change 
its showing, and to shift its ground ; by them she is 
now maintaining probably the last struggle with pagan- 
ism ; and by them must she fight that last great battle, 
in which Christ shall destroy the man of sin by the 
sword of his mouth. The names and the virtues of a 
few from the myriads of her glorious leaders are left to 
the church, as one of the rich gifts of Providence ; and 
she may safely challenge the world to show the class 
of men, who have done so much to establish truth and 
virtue ; while, at the same time, the world may well 
challenge her, to show a class of greater scourges than 
the ignorant, the fanatical, the worldly, and selfish 
ministers of religion have been. 

The piety, the peace, the progress of the Church, 
and the temporal welfare of society, are connected 
more intimately with the character of the Christian 
ministry than with any other human cause. Paul 
understood this connexion. His views of the nature 
and influence of the embassy of reconciliation were 
large and profound. No man better understood the 
importance of the office, and the necessity of thorough 



130 SERMON V. 

4 

qualification for it. His prophetic warnings show us, 
how painful were his convictions of the evils that the 
Church must suffer, of the darkness and confusion 
that would settle upon her, under teachers who should 
seek their own glory and not her good, — under teach- 
ers who knew more of human speculation than of 
divine revelation. We are not surprised, accordingly, 
when we find so frequent reference to this important 
subject, in his letters both to churches and to ministers. 
One of his chief sources of anxiety evidently was, the 
exposure of the Church to the bad instructions of 
incompetent preachers, and to the bad example of 
unholy pastors. The history of the Church after his 
decease acquaints us more fully with the grounds of 
that solicitude. He must die, and his faithful pupils 
must die ; — the work must pass into other hands. 
What, then, could he do to secure a succession of com- 
petent and faithful pastors to the Church ? He could 
write, and leave on record to the end of time, his views 
and his exhortations. He has done this ; and in pro- 
portion as the Church shall feel an interest in the 
subject, in proportion as she shall give heed to his 
instructions and warnings, and do what is assigned her 
for securing a competent ministry ; and in proportion 
as the existing race of ministers shall feel their re- 
sponsibility, and rightly comprehend their duty in 
perpetuating their office ; in that proportion, will the 
Gospel be faithfully and successfully administered in 
the world; and, we may add, it will produce its 
happy fruits. 

But it is time that we leave the threshold of our 
subject. " The things that thou hast heard of me 
among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faith- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 131 

ful men, who shall be able to teach others also." I 
seize here the two characteristics, of fidelity and com- 
petencyy which the apostle especially designates to his 
son Timothy, in directing his choice of successors. 
And from it I conduct your meditations under the 
two topics of piety and ability to teach, as constituting 
the qualifications which the Church must both demand 
in the candidates for her sacred ofhce, and seek instru- 
mentally to impart and augment in the sons of the 
prophets. " The same commit thou to faithful men, 
who shall be able to teach others also." 

We shall direct our attention, first, to the intel- 
lectual department of ministerial qualifications, the 
ability to teach. 

FIRST PART. 

Our proposition is, that the Church must secure a 
learned ministry. We do not mean to say that all 
her ministers must necessarily be men of such attain- 
ments, as to merit the title of learned. Piety, an 
intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures, good sense, 
and an acceptable manner of instructing, may^ qualify 
her sons to do much good, to move in spheres less 
conspicuous, and consequently, in some respects less 
exposed to the temptations of ambition. Such men 
may edify the Church, and lead many to a knowledge 
of the Savior. Their prayers may bring blessings to 
thousands of their fellow men. All this we believe, 
and rejoice to believe ; yet it remains true, that the 
Church is called upon, by the providence of her Lord, 
to secure a ministry profoundly learned, and dis- 
ciplined in all the higher range of intellectual exertion. 
By the learning of the ministry, we mean to describe 
both knowledge and cultivation ; a knowledge of the 



132 SERMON V. 

Bible, and of all that can throw light upon its mean- 
ing; — a knowledge of the various shades of error which 
have misled men in past ages, and to which they are 
still exposed;— a knowledge of the human heart, as 
gained from the study of the Bible, of history, of our 
contemporaries, and of ourselves ; — a knowledge of the 
dealings of God with his Church in each period of her 
history ; — a knowledge of whatever bears upon the 
interests of man as a subject of God's moral govern- 
ment ; and a thorough discipline of mind, or the power 
of using the mental faculties in the highest exercise 
of which they are capable. We are aware of the evil 
of an undue dependence on learning. We are aware 
of the evils which it may do, when separate from 
piety ; but for that we are not pleading. We know 
that all the great heresies, which have misled mankind, 
have been originated by men of great philosophical 
acuteness, and generally by men of great learning ; 
that the nation, perhaps, the most profoundly learned, 
is now the great nursery of infidelity; and that the 
schools, ^which they founded for the promotion of piety 
and for the propagation of the gospel, are now turned 
to the subversion of the gospel, and to the establish- 
ment of philosophy on its ruins. 

1. The mere knowledge of what he is to teach, is 
so varied and so extensive, that a minister must really 
be learned, to merit the title of a scribe well instructed, 
and able to bring forth from his storehouse things new 
and old. If this be doubted by any, let it be asked, 
what are ministers to teach, and where and how are 
they to find their message ? They are to teach the 
substance of what God has revealed in a written 
volume. But that revelation was made in languages 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 133 

now not spoken. It was committed to writing in those 
languages. Other writings were surreptitiously brought 
in to share its authority. Now, without entering upon 
this field of research, to some extent, how is a man 
of candid and inquiring mind to find assurance that 
he is proclaiming God's revelation ? ■ It may be said, 
that many excellent ministers have never attended to 
this subject. We admit it, and admit that the most 
of us, who are now in the ministry, feel the defects 
of our early education in this and other departments. 
And we so feel them, as to make us desire strongly, 
that those to whom we commit the office, should enter 
more solidly and thoroughly into the study of all that 
is fundamental to the Christian system. We desire to 
see a stronger and a better race of men succeed us. 
Sensible of intellectual and spiritual defects, we seek 
not to shield our pride by limiting our successors to 
the standard of our attainments. We do not say, that 
other Christians may not content themselves with the 
received canon of Sacred Scripture, and with the re- 
ceived translation ; but we do maintain, that he, who 
proposes himself as a public champion for the truth 
of revealed religion, as a public teacher of the revealed 
will of God, ought to go nearer to the fountain. He 
ought not to content himself with receiving it at 
second hand. He is bound for his own sake, for the 
Church's sake, and from honesty to those whom he 
opposes, and whose rejection of the Bible he so se- 
verely condemns, to prove to his own mind by candid 
and prayerful research, that he has the very word of 
God ; and to be able to say, not from translation, but 
from the words of inspiration, what are the doctrines 
of godliness and of eternal life. If any have not 

12 



134 SERMON V. 

time for this, let them be considered the exceptions, 
not the models. Let them not decry learning ; and 
let not the Church itself act so inconsistent a part, 
as to take advantage of the erudition and research 
of the men of other days, and then denounce this 
very erudition and research, as contrary to the nature 
and design of the evangelical ministry. Let her not 
forget her indebtedness to her Kennicotts, her Mills, 
and her Griesbachs ; no, not even to the German 
neologists, who have so solidly proved the accuracy 
of the manuscripts from which our own translation 
is taken. Let us acknowledge the satisfaction that 
we experience, and the indebtedness that we feel to 
the men, who, by great learning and great labor, 
have proved, that the providence of God has so pre- 
served the Scriptures in many languages and among 
many nations, before the invention of printing, that 
not a single important doctrine or sentiment is lost, 
if we expunge from our translation all the passages 
in which the manuscripts of highest authority differ 
from one another. No ; I repeat it ; Providence lays 
this necessity upon us. It has been by severe study, 
and pains-taking research, that ancient manuscripts 
of the different versions of the Old Testament have 
been found, and compared with the copies in the 
hands of the Jews. It is by much research and 
careful comparison, that the various manuscripts of 
the New Testament have been examined. This 
fundamental branch of biblical literature, a teacher 
of the Bible is bound to know, if he can. He ought 
not to be ignorant of the learned and subtle objections, 
which have been made to the reception of the Bible 
as a divine revelation. He ought not to be ignorant 






THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 135 

of the strong and cumulative mass of evidence of 
its divine origin, which places Christianity on an 
unassailable rock. And receiving this revelation, he 
should be able to read it in its native tongue ; for 
no person, who has read a book of great merit in one 
language, and then read its translation into another, 
can fail to have felt that much of its meaning and 
beauty, of its spirit and power have evaporated in the 
process of translating. The Hebrew and Greek Scrip- 
tures ought to become the familiar companions of a 
gospel minister. There is a sweetness, unction, and 
power in them, which can be felt, but not translated. 
The meaning may be expressed by circumlocution ; 
and the translation will thus be equally instructive as 
the original ; but it cannot be equally impressive either 
on the imagination or on the heart. 

2. The minister must be learned, for the defence of 
the truths of revelation against the learned. We sup- 
pose him now to be prepared to instruct the sincere 
followers of Christ from his stores of biblical science — 
his rich, and varied, and well-arranged knowledge of 
the contents of the Bible. But Providence throws 
another class of objectors in his path. These appeal to 
history and science, to prove the falsity of Christianity 
as a pretended gift of God. They frame imposing pro- 
positions and arguments in philosophical form. These, 
again, are seducing the minds of the learned and re- 
flecting among his hearers, by subtle errors apparently 
founded on the very word of God. And they come 
forward with their improved versions, and new transla- 
tions, and shrewd expositions, assailing the very foun- 
dations of the Christian's hope. And what shall this 
captain in the Lord's army do ? Shall he turn pale, 



136 SERMON V. 

and say, 'I know I am right, but I do not fight with 
the carnal weapons of human reason and science V So 
did not Paul on Mars' Hill ; so did he not with the 
Corinthian philosophers, who scoffed at the doctrine of 
a resurrection. So did not the early bishops of the 
Church, when Novatius and the Gnostics, when Pela- 
gius and Arius lifted their deadly weapons against the 
gospel. So did not the great leaders of the Reforma- 
tion. To him, who seriously fears, that God will not 
bless the employment of learning and of cultivated mind 
to defend the truths revealed in his word, I think it 
would be sufficient to cite the fact, that, if great errors 
have sprung from men of great learning, it is by the 
learned, and by the learned alone, that those strong 
defences of the truth have been formed, which, by in- 
structing the pastors of the churches, and guarding 
them from subtle and plausible error, have, through 
them, guarded, and guided, and strengthened the 
Church of God herself. We refer to the writings of 
Augustine against Pelagius, to the apologies of the 
Fathers, and to the galaxy of powerful minds, who, in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so enriched 
our English theological literature. 

We enforce our position, by presenting an additional 
consideration from the arrangements of Providence. 

3. The great variety of minds, to which a minister is 
to preach, creates the necessity for a great variety of 
mental furniture and discipline. We have seem him a 
student of truth ; now we see him a student of sacred 
eloquence, or of the mode of presenting truth ; for it is 
one thing to know, and another to teach. The capa- 
city for knowledge, and the attainment of knowledge, 
will not, of themselves, give that aptness to teach, which 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 137 

Paul says, should distinguish a bishop. We are sure, 
that with a reflecting mind, we should have no differ- 
ence on this subject, except as to degrees. For what- 
ever prejudices may have arisen justly against wrong 
modes of instructing in eloquence, there can be no 
doubt, that some degree of instruction in it is important. 
This must be admitted fully, the instant that you admit, 
that no man ought to preach the gospel, who cannot 
speak his maternal language without violating the most 
commonly understood rules of grammar, or without the 
employment of such rude and vulgar terms, as shock 
every person of true refinement. In such a case you 
admit the whole of our principle. You might even be 
opposed, in the abstract, to human learning in the min- 
istry, and especially to the study of eloquence ; but you 
admit here, the importance of instruction in grammar 
and propriety of utterance, which are two of the essen- 
tial elements of eloquence. The difference between us, 
then, can only be this ; that you want two of the lower 
branches of the sacred art, — we want to have the whole 
range of its power consecrated to the service of God in 
the salvation of souls ; you are willing to have the un- 
systematic instruction of social intercourse, and the 
accidental cultivation of ordinary observation, — we de- 
sire the regular, efficient instruction which will secure 
its end most surely and most speedily. 

The office of the pulpit is threefold — instruction, 
conviction, and persuasion. 

And shall it be said, that in every school save that 
of Christ, none should presume to be teachers but those 
who are well taught ; that every science, save that of 
the very Being himself who made all science, requires 
instructers thoroughly prepared ; and that this sublim- 

12* 



138 SERMON V. 

est, deepest, richest, most important of all, may be 
taught to the world by the most superficial and indolent? 
No, none would maintain that ; none would assert, that it 
is possible for any one to present the scheme of truth, re- 
vealed in the Scriptures, in all its dimensions, in all its 
internal harmony of parts, and all its exterior harmony 
with man's nature and state, and with the visible part 
of creation, without much careful and well-directed 
study of the Scriptures themselves. The question, 
really dividing us, might be, whether or not the study 
of any thing beyond the limits of the Bible itself were 
necessary. To resolve this, we must revert again to 
the fact, that this revelation is made in two languages 
foreign to us ; and besides that, is couched under the 
peculiarities of foreign customs, geography, proverbs, 
poetry, imagery, institutions, on which information is 
to be sought for from other sources, and from new 
channels of information, which the providence of God 
is continually opening to the diligent students of his 
word. To take advantage of these, and to bring out 
of his treasure new things, the teacher of divine truth 
must be something more than simply a student of the 
Bible. And again; the Bible contains a system of 
moral philosophy to be applied to all the details of life, 
to all the complicated rights, interests, employments 
and relations of mankind. And shall one, entirely 
ignorant of those relations, employments, and interests, 
pretend to guide the conscience of the world ? Shall 
men, learned in the history of mankind, in the works 
of God, in the principles of moral government, be taught 
by those who appear ridiculous in every attempt to 
illustrate God's word from his works? Or will it be 
said, that all that rich source of illustration is to be ex- 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 139 

eluded from the instructions of the pulpit 1 Has Paley's 
Natural Theology, have Chalmers' Astronomical Ser- 
mons, been of no use to the Church ? We plead for 
learning in the ministry. 

Such learning as comprehends a wide, profound, and 
harmonious view of revealed truths, such as sees the 
connexion of those truths with all the great temporal 
interests of man, and" with all the profoundest subjects 
of human research. We want instruction not only for 
the ignorant and the devout, but also for the learned 
and the indifferent. We desire to see men attracted by 
the sublimity and simplicity of the gospel fairly pre- 
sented, to listen to the statement of its claims upon their 
hearts. 

But the word of God is given also for conviction. 
Here we advance to a higher function of the ministry. 
Instruction contemplates men as willing learners ; but 
convictions refers to a hostile attitude. The minister 
is to break in upon the agreeable slumbers of conscience, 
and arouse her to the painful task of reproach and con- 
demnation. A Nathan is to sound in royal ears, u Thou 
art the man f — a John to stand in high places, and say, 
" It is not lawful for thee." Sin is to be rebuked, not 
in the style of the Satirists, simply reproving one or 
another form of outward vice, but nations are to be 
called upon to repent, like Nineveh ; the deep depravity 
of the heart is to be exposed, the fearful position of man 
as a rebel is to be demonstrated, the mad career of the 
world is to be stopped, the voice of its mirth is to be 
hushed, and one profound and universal sentiment of 
self-condemnation and fear is to seize the human family. 
And this is to be effected through the gospel-ministry. 
But that ministry must be occupied by bolder men, and 



140 SERMON V. 

abler men, and holier men than we are. And not only 
the pulpit, but the mighty energies of the press are to 
be called into action, to make the world sensible of its 
true condition, and of its need of the gospel. The false 
views of human character, and of life, contained in the 
current literature and philosophy of the day, are to be 
proved false ; the veil thrown over the eyes of con- 
science is to be torn away, and thunder-peals are to be 
constantly sounding in her sleeping ears. God has 
promised it, and the day is hastening. But first in the 
rank of the means of accomplishing it, is the elevation 
of the standard of ministerial qualifications. The grasp 
of the Church must be bolder, her aim higher. She 
must have Augustines and Chrysostoms, whose elo- 
quent and holy appeals can reach the highest minds, 
and, reaching, can disturb and convince of sin ; Pauls, 
who can plead before those whom talent or station ex- 
alts above the reach of ordinary minds, and, pleading, 
can make them tremble before God ; sacred orators 
who have comprehended the logic of revelation, and 
can apply it to bring the whole guilty race, high and 
low, learned and ignorant, self-condemned before God. 
Another function of the ministry is persuasion. The 
power of persuasion depends on many natural qualifi- 
cations, but much more on their proper cultivation. 
This may, perhaps, seem to some a bold proposition, as 
applied to the regeneration of the human heart ; for it 
is easy to take such a view of the efficiency of divine 
power, and to entertain so jealous a regard for its sa- 
cred prerogative, as to make it even blasphemous to 
speak of the power of human persuasion, as having any 
tendency to renew the soul in holiness ; or to speak of 
the training of the schools, as in any degree calculated 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 141 

to augment the success of a minister in winning souls 
to Christ. To all this sentiment, however much we 
respect the piety that originates, we cannot the less 
deprecate the ignorance that encourages it, and the ten- 
dency which it has to limit the usefulness of the gospel 
ministry. We must content ourselves here with deny- 
ing its truth and justness, rather than with proving its 
falseness. It appears to us self-evident, that God has 
established a connection between the imparted energies 
of his quickening Spirit, and a certain adaptedness in 
the instrument, just as truly as between the quickening 
energies of his physical power, and the more or less 
skilful employment of agricultural implements. And 
to deny this, is to declare, that the most slovenly and 
disgusting manner in a preacher, the most harsh and 
grating pronunciation, the most absurd jumbling of 
figures of rhetoric, the most ridiculous miscalling of 
men and things, is as fit an instrument for converting 
souls, as the eloquence of Whitefield. Oh ! no ; we 
need not defend this position, that the art of persuasion 
is one of the great instruments appointed of God for the 
conversion of the world, — an art for which we have 
the faculties by birth, which require to be developed 
by culture, and which are capable of an indefinite de- 
gree of cultivation. 

This holy art of teaching, convincing, persuading, 
demands habits of severe study and discipline. The 
work of the ministry is pre-eminently an intellectual 
work, requiring the highest efforts of mind, and giving 
scope to all its faculties. And we are persuaded, that 
many, who entered it with a wrong estimate of the im- 
portance of preparatory study, have since found their 
mistake, when it was too late to provide a remedy. In- 



142 SERMON V. 

tellectual discouragement, and dull monotony, in his 
work, is now the painful lot of many a pastor who 
spends a week of active employment, but not in such a 
preparation for the pulpit as enlarges, and liberalizes, 
and refreshes his own mind. He sees every subject in 
the same light from week to week, turns over his Bible, 
and finds everywhere the same texts suggesting to his 
mind the same trains of thought, and the very same 
phrases. He has refused to acquaint himself with the 
varied stores of knowledge that God placed within his 
reach ; he has neglected to discipline and develope the 
higher and richer faculties of his mind ; and now he 
reaps the bitter fruits of his ignorance, or of his sincere 
but misguided zeal for God's honor. And I will not 
venture to say, how much affinity I think there is, be- 
tween intellectual and spiritual dulness and monotony. 

But in all this we have spoken only of pastors, be- 
cause it was concerning them that we have imagined 
that we should have to contend with the greatest 
amount of avowed or secret opposition to a learned 
ministry. Now we apprehend no such objections in 
reference to translations of the Scriptures for the heath- 
en ; and to the writers of commentories and works of 
divinity for the Church and for her pastors. 

There is a fourth consideration to enforce our views. 

4. The pastor is to superintend important, extended, 
and complicated interests, which require both solid 
learning and sound discipline of mind. 

The spiritual interests of individuals, with all the 
variety of their characters, attainments, and circumstan- 
ces, and their complicated and delicate cases of con- 
science ; the spiritual interests of families, of the young; 
the care of his own Church, the general interests of 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 143 

education, the general interests of the Church ; a know- 
ledge of the actual position of his fellow men, and of 
the bearing of the literature and political movements 
of the day upon the interests of Christ's kingdom ; a 
thorough acquaintance with the increasingly important 
efforts of the Church to extend the gospel to distant 
nations, with the relations of these efforts to their institu- 
tions and to the vairous civil governments ; the forma- 
tion of a sound literature to supersede the corrupt 
influence of that which impiety and scepticism have 
generated ; — these are among the duties which God in 
his providence assigns to the gospel-minister. For, if 
he has them not in charge, no one has ; and, if he has, 
then we strenuously maintain, that he cannot know 
too much of man as he has been, and of man as he is ; 
of the history of the world, and of the history of Chris- 
tianity ; of the history of his country, of its political 
condition, its literature, and its institutions. 

But we have proposed a more distinct reference to 
the objections, which may be made to these views. It 
may be said, that they promote pride and dependence 
on man. We reply, not necessarily. An ignorant 
man, raised to a station of influence, is in much greater 
danger of pride, than a man of learning. Ignorance is 
no security against pride ; nor are learning and piety 
incompatible, as has been shown in numberless instan- 
ces. And as to dependence upon human power, was 
there ever a case in which there was more danger than 
in that of Paul ? His gifts and endowments were of 
the first order, and the Church was in danger of pla- 
cing undue confidence in them ; yet the Head of the 
Church conferred them on him. 

It may be said, that Paul declared that he re- 



144 SERMON V. 

nounced all dependence on human learning and elo- 
quence. The same kind of distinction must be made 
here, as in the cases of fasting, prayer, and alms-giving. 
When our Savior commands us not to pray in public 
to be seen of men, he means not to prevent public 
prayer, but to correct its abuse. Paul employed true 
philosophy and true eloquence, in opposition to the vain 
systems and the showy declamation, which were the 
boast of the Grecian schools of his day. Surely he 
would never have objected to the employment of the 
simple and manly eloquence of Demosthenes in preach- 
ing the gospel ; surely he would not have required of 
that orator, if he had lived in Paul's day, had been 
converted and brought to preach the gospel, to employ 
in the pulpit less good sense, less knowledge of the hu- 
man heart, than he had used in the forum. Paul de- 
termined to know nothing but a crucified Savior as the 
theme of his sermons, and not to speak in the enticing 
words of man's wisdom; but he, nevertheless, availed 
himself of his profound knowledge of the Jewish law, 
and of the human heart ; of his acquaintance with the 
great principles of natural theology, with heathen poets 
and heathen philosophers, to reach the consciences and 
hearts of his hearers. 

It may further be said, that human learning has no 
tendency to convert the soul. This is, at last, the im- 
portant objection ; an objection which, perhaps, often 
recurs to the sincere friend of ministerial learn ingf. 
The work of conversion seems so exclusively the pre- 
rogative of the Holy Spirit, that no possible connexion 
can be seen between it and the study of the classics, 
of mathematics, and of philosophy. Perhaps, too, our 
theological students themselves often lose sight of this 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 145 

connexion ; and just so far their studies benefit their 
minds at the expense of their hearts. 

Let us ask ourselves, whether in this case we do not 
exaggerate the truth ? It is true, that God converts 
the soul ; but does he do it by means, or without 
means ? and, if by means, does he make use of human 
faculties, and of human language, or not ? If he makes 
use of human language, then we should say, from the 
analogy of all his works, that the more perfectly lan- 
guage is employed, the more calculated is it to secure 
the end. I appeal to the common sense of the Objecting 
Christian, on two of the simplest elements of eloquence. 
Perspicuity is one. Now, suppose that a very pious 
preacher speaks of the love of Christ, but utters him- 
self so obscurely as not to make himself understood ; 
and another, of equal piety, explains this great subject 
clearly ; which is most likely to be employed of God 
ibr converting men ? Might not the one as well speak 
in the Hebrew language ? And here we reply to the 
very plausible objection, — " of what use can the mathe- 
matics be to the theological student f* Perhaps of lit- 
tle or none 7 in their application ; but their study seems 
to promote exactly what we now have referred to, pre- 
cision of thought, and perspicuity of language. Again, 
suppose a man to speak of the wrath of God in a dull 
and sleepy manner ; and another to thunder in the ears 
of the careless, as we may suppose Baxter and Alleine 
to have done ; is it not evident, that the Holy Spirit 
may be expected to reach the heart more effectually by 
the one, than by the other ? And yet, although the 
professor of eloquence cannot give a soul, he can teach 
the soul to utter its sentiments in the most impressive 
way. He can teach his pupil to put away the unnat- 

13 



146 SERMON V. 

ural and unoratorical habits that he may have con- 
tracted. 

On this important topic, we carry you back to the 
apostolic college. Our blessed Redeemer opened a 
kind of peripatetic, or itinerant theological school. 
And never did men possess such a teacher, and never 
were such advances made, as under that instruction. 
This is evident, when we compare their sentiments, as 
expressed in their letters, with those for which Christ 
so often rebuked them in the beginning of their studies. 
But if learning was not necessary, why not send them 
out as soon as they were called ? Why must they be 
three years at school, under such a teacher, equivalent 
to ten times as many years under others ? It may be 
said, — " they were to be witnesses of his life and works ; 
they were to be disciplined in piety." All true ; and 
yet equally true is it, that they were all this time rapid- 
ly learning. And yet, even that was not sufficient ; 
they had not learning enough, when leaving the school 
of Christ ; and the Holy Ghost himself, by miraculous 
power, must complete their instruction, and place them, 
in some respects, among the most learned ; that is, by 
at once imparting the knowledge of ten or fourteen 
languages. It may be said, too, that Christ did not 
teach philosophy, nor pay any attention to intellectual 
discipline. And yet it is well worthy of notice, that the 
distinguished apostle, who was selected to preach to phi- 
losophers and courtiers, was taken from the schools. 

But to refute this objection by fact, let us look at 
modern times, and ask, what class of learned men have 
been more blessed in their ministry than Doddridge, 
and Watts, and Whitefleld, and Wesley, of England ; 
Edwards, and Bellamy, and Dwight of America ? 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 147 

Who has filled higher places of usefulness than the 
learned Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and Knox? ' Bun- 
yan,' it may be said, ' is an exception ;' no, he is a con- 
firmation, for he had what many cannot now acquire 
but in part, even by the severest study. If all unedu- 
cated men can write a Pilgrim's Progress, our argument 
loses much of its power. The same may be said of 
Fuller. It was the solid learning and mental disci- 
pline of those men and not their ignorance, that God 
employed for the good of his Church ; and we are im- 
pressed by the fact, that the peculiar dealings of God 
with men, who were to accomplish extraordinary good, 
secured uncommon discipline, both of mind and heart. 
So it was with Moses, with the forerunner, and even 
with our Lord ; so with Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah. 
They were taken to high places of the universe, from 
whence they could catch glorious views of God and 
his plans. Oh that our theological schools may be 
like their sacred retreats, whence, by profound and 
tranquil reflection, by earnest prayer, by special inter- 
course with God, by large and lofty views of their com- 
mission, our future ministers may be prepared for going 
forth to move, to teach, to bless, and save the world ! 
The necessity of such institutions was felt under the 
Old Testament, and led to forming the schools of the 
prophets. They were early revived under the New 
Testament, perhaps in Alexandria, soon after the death 
of the apostles. They are now the hope of the Church, 
and must become more and more the object of her pray- 
ers and affections. We have said, perhaps, too much 
upon the necessity of learning ; not too much abso- 
lutely, but so much as to expose ourselves to the dan- 
ger of appearing to estimate it above piety. 



148 SERMON V. 



But this brings us to our 






SECOND PART. 

We maintain with equal earnestness that the Church 
must secure a pious ministry. " The same commit 
thou to faithful men," says Paul to Timothy, men 
faithful to God and to his Church ; faithful to their 
trust and to the souls of men. And this faithfulness 
demands for its first and its last element — piety. A 
learned ministry, without piety, is even a greater 
curse than an ignorant one. To prove that every 
minister ought to be a converted man, — nay, a man 
of uncommon piety, as much in moral stature above 
his brethren, as Saul was in physical proportions 
above his ; — to prove that a minister must be a man 
of true piety, is to prove that our bodies need life, that 
without his soul, man is but a corpse ; that without 
the sun, the world is in darkness and misery. The 
men, who assume the sacred office without a renewed 
heart, are utterly unacquainted, both with the nature 
of its duties, and with its awful responsibilities. We 
know that God may have converted many souls by 
the preaching of unconverted men ; but his gracious 
overruling of human depravity should never be abused 
by man, to encourage himself in sin. 

But there is no room for reasoning on the subject. 
He, that believes in the reality and universal necessity 
of conversion, must acknowledge, that ministers are 
included in that all ; and must admit its importance 
above all to the minister. Every branch of his duties, 
every issue of his ministry, bears prominent on its 
front the urgent necessity of great piety. Whether 
we consider him as coming from God to man, or as 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 149 

turning from man in his infatuation, and man in his 
feebleness, to supplicate God in his behalf; — whether 
we consider the nature of the subjects he is to teach 
as pre-eminently matters of experience, or the power 
of example ; — whether we look at time and its trials, 
or at the judgment and its eternal issues ;— we see 
every thing urging upon the ministers of Christ piety, 
eminent piety, a close resemblance to their Master, the 
intimacy of holy communion with him, the power of a 
holy sympathy with him, and the efficiency of prevail- 
ing intercession with the Father. 

The ambassador of Christ goes forth, from the me- 
diatorial throne, chosen, qualified, commissioned, to 
a world, ignorant of God, of his grace, and of his 
wrath, blind alike to his holy law and to his scheme 
of mercy, blinded and deluded by a subtle spirit. He 
is to plead and remonstrate against that world's rebel- 
lion ; but how shall he do it sincerely and successfully 
if his heart sympathizes not with the government of 
Jehovah ? How absurd as well as hypocritical is the 
eloquence of a man, who has never laid down his own 
rebellious weapons, never yet even acknowledged his 
own rebellion, and yet pretends with tears and solemn 
entreaties to persuade his fellow men to repent ! The 
more eloquent and the more pathetic he is, the more 
absurd ; and every convert under such preaching is 
but a witness against his own impenitence. The man, 
who proclaims to this wicked world the offer of par- 
don, must deeply feel the evil of its rebellion, must 
earnestly sympathize with the holy government of 
God ; sin must be the burden of his own soul ; he must 
fear that wrath which he announces in words of terror 
to others ; for, perhaps, there is no infidelity so per- 

13* 



150 SERMON V. 

fectly effective, as that which is concealed under 
solemn and pompous words about the wrath of God, 
where the preacher's soul is not moved at the time 
in view of that terrific reality. It accustoms men to 
feel, that it is a trifle • while they escape the reproach 
of their own conscience by appearing to acknowledge 
its reality. Yes, I may say, that it is one of the grand 
impediments to the progress of religion, that so many, 
professing to be its ministers, have accustomed the 
people to be as much unaffected by it, as they are 
themselves. They perpetuate the dreadful pestilence 
of religious insensibility by mere contagion ; and under 
them grows up the form of godliness without its power. 
God deliver us from heartless ministers ! The man 
who means to awaken the conscience of this slumber- 
ing world must know much of the holiness and the 
terrors of God's law, and have awful views of his ma- 
jesty ; he must have studied with his heart in Geth- 
semane and on Calvary ; he must know the meaning 
of that exclamation, " If these things be done in the 
green tree, what shall be done dry !" 

He, who would meet the inquiring soul and lead it 
to Christ, must know the way by experience. Here 
the power of the heart is peculiarly employed by the 
Spirit of God. He, who would talk profitably of re- 
pentance, must talk of it experimentally. He, who 
would lead the young convert in the first steps of his 
Christian walk, must talk like an old traveller of a 
road, that he knows by having traversed it ; he must 
meet with something like parental sympathy, the fears, 
the joys, the hopes, the doubts, of the babe in Christ. 
He, who would be a leader to the Church of Christ, 
must be an example of all he teaches ; he must not 






THE CHISTIAN MINISTRY. 151 

say. Go to the cross for pardon,' but, 'Come to the 
cross.' He must know the snares of Satan, that he 
may point them to others ; and he must learn them 
from his own heart. He must be taught of God to 
teach God's word. He must know the trials peculiar 
to Christians in order to sympathize with his flock ; 
and when called to the common trials of life, he must 
show how to sustain them. How powerful were the 
appeals of Paul to the Church when he could say, 
" Follow us as we follow Christ !" 

The provideuce of God is evidently preparing the 
Church for a wider and more important field of action, 
than she has occupied since the apostolic days ; and 
none, save men of an apostolic spirit, will be prepared 
to guide her in the arduous conflict and the mighty 
work that lies before her. 

And if this aspect of the ministry presents the neces- 
sity of piety, how much more so does the other in 
which we behold the minister going from men to God, 
to intercede in their behalf. It is well said by a French 
divine, " More than half a minister's work must be 
accomplished in his closet : it is an affair between him 
and his God." Each Christian must be a man of prayer ; 
but chiefly he, who undertakes to negotiate between 
God and man, in the matter of salvation. The life of, 
all our services, the power of our appeals, the light of 
our instructions, the efficacy of our consolations, the 
savor of our example, — all depend upon the degree 
of our communion with God. We are bound to live 
in view of both worlds, to cherish the sentiments of 
heaven, while we live on earth ; we are like ambas- 
sadors to a rebel province, who by constant corres- 
pondence with the sovereign and his loyal courtiers, 



152 SERMON V. 

preserve ourselves from contracting the spirit of rebel- 
lion, while we deeply sympathize with the wretched 
condition of our rebel fellow-subjects. And where 
does the pastor tread more closely in the steps of the 
Great High Priest than when, with the names of his 
people on his heart, he is before the sprinkled mercy- 
seat 7 The Church ought to look with much anxiety 
to this point; that her ministers be men of prayer, 
of eminent prayerful ness. The promise concerning 
the days of her prosperity is — " 1 have set watchmen 
upon thy walls, O Jerusalem ! which shall never hold 
their peace, day nor night." The divine direction 
hence is — " Ye, that make mention of the Lord" — the 
Lord's remembrancers — "keep not silence, and give 
him no rest, till he establish and till he make Jerusalem 
a praise in the earth." 

But 1 must close this too protracted exercise, by 
bringing the subject to this practical conclusion : — 
that the Church has a most important part to act in 
securing both the learning and the piety of her min- 
istry. As to the first, she is to sustain her theological 
colleges, and demand of them an efficient course of in- 
tellectual training. As to the second, let her distinctly 
see that it is that alone which makes learning valuable, 
and that, in past ages, Satan has perpetually gained an 
advantage, by making her go into one extreme or the 
other ; — that of having learning without piety, or piety 
without learning. And let her chiefly see what part 
she has to act in securing the piety of her ministers. 

We may specify several distinct duties ; — and first, 
prayer for unconverted youth. In America, we are 
made to feel the necessity of this, and are taught by 
Providence to pray the Lord of the harvest that he 



THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 153 

would send forth laborers into the harvest. We have 
not ministers enough to meet our spiritual wants, and 
the wants of the Missionary societies. Driven, there- 
fore, to look to God in behalf of our unconverted and 
educated youth, we have set apart days of prayer for 
this object. And the Lord has signally answered our 
requests. Let British Churches remember, that there 
are not ministers enough to supply the tenth part of the 
world with pastoral instructions. But let them chiefly 
remember that we are deficient not in numbers only, but 
also in ministerial graces. We must give the Lord no 
rest, until his ministers love one another more, are less 
given to sects and more to souls ; until they come to 
greater simplicity and activity, and power and efficiency. 

We suggest also special prayer for theological col- 
leges. We urge the importance of exalting the stand- 
ard of piety before young Christians, by the example 
of the Church, showing those, who are to preach the 
gospel, how to live for Christ. Every day that the 
candidate for the ministry passes under your roof, every 
time he sits at your board, he is receiving impressions 
which may affect his ministry. He learns from your 
remarks on ministers and sermons, what the Church 
expects of both. 

Christian friends ! who revere the memory of her 
whom the Head of the Church raised up in a time of 
spiritual death and darkness, to encourage and even 
guide his faithful ministers ; remember this college, — 
her Benjamin, — the child of her right hand. It needs 
your pecuniary aid ; with that aid, it may take its proper 
position amid the kindred institutions, that are doing so 
much to raise the qualifications of the sacred ministry. 
It was liberally, nobly endowed. Every thing which 



154 SERMON V. 

that heart devised was planned on a broad scale. And 
yet a college is not the result of the labors of one hand. 
It is enough for one to found it ; posterity, who are to 
reap its rich advantages, must mature and perfect it. 
To accomplish all that she designed, to finish what she 
began, requires a spirit of equal liberality with her own. 
Who has her spirit ? who counts the cause of Christ all 
his care, as she did ? who is prepared to tread in her 
path of self-denial and faith ? Who sympathizes with 
her zeal for God and the Church? Come, brethren ! come 
to our help ; come, I would say, to her help, and enable the 
directors of the college to execute their admirable plans. 

But important as these plans are, they respect chiefly 
the elevation of the standard of learning and intellectual 
discipline : for the other and higher benefits, they look 
beyond their plans to the sovereign grace of God, to 
Jesus, the Head of his Church, with whom is the residue 
of the Spirit. And to-day they commission me to appeal 
to your hearts in behalf of the college, the directors, the 
pupils, the teachers. Their desire is, that the Holy 
Spirit may be the great teacher here ; that Jesus would 
abide with them by that Spirit, that he would teach 
them the preciousnessof his gospel, and how to preach it. 

Christians ! pray much for this school, that here may 
be trained the sons of thunder and the sons of consola- 
tion. The Church should look with deep solicitude to 
these schools of the prophets ; for a perishing world 
seems to cast towards them an imploring look; the 
perishing heathen are crying as of old — " Come over 
and help us." And they ask for spiritual men, men of 
prayer, of faith, of zeal ; men, in a word, whom God 
shall call, commission, and bless. 

Brethren, pray for the College. 



SERMON VI. 



THE NATURE AND INFLUENCE OF MATERNAL 
ASSOCIATIONS. 



" And they brought unto him also infants, that he 
would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, 
they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto 
him, and said, suffer little children to come unto 
me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the king- 
dom of God" — Luke xviii. 15. 16. 

The prince of darkness has fearfully extended his 
empire over the whole human family ; and the Son of 
God, the Prince of peace, has Gome to " destroy the 
works of the devil," to open the prison-door to the cap- 
tive, and let the prisoner go free. He has come, with 
the voice of authority, to command the prisoner to 
escape from bondage, and, with the voice of tender invi- 
tation, to entreat him to leave his vassalage, and disown 
his allegiance to Satan. And there are two remarka- 
ble features in all his commands and invitations ; the 
one is, that they regard all classes of men, without re- 
spect to any of the distinctions, that pertain to the pre- 
sent and temporary forms of society ; and the other 
feature is, that they extend to human nature in every 
age of its existence, from its earliest stages and its first 
developments. This feature, the disciples of Christ did 
notj at first, understand ; they supposed, that the king- 



156 SERMON VI 






dom, which our Lord had come to establish, was of 
such a nature, that it required the full maturity of the 
understanding to appreciate its advantages, and to enter 
upon the discharge of its duties. Hence, (as you may 
suppose his group principally to have consisted of 
mothers,) when mothers, obeying that maternal instinct, 
which often is more wise than the sound deductions of 
philosophy, (sound in the eyes of those who make them,) 
— that maternal instinct which felt for the little ones, 
felt their helplessness and their want, and had learned 
the power and goodness of the great Redeemer, — when 
they drew nigh, and presented their infants to him, to 
come within the blessed sphere of his benignity and 
mercy, the disciples interposed, rejected the infants and 
rebuked the mothers. But Jesus said, Suffer these little 
ones to come to me ; let no man forbid them ; the king- 
dom, that I am establishing, reaches even to the infan- 
tile state of human existence; little children, too, are 
to be the objects of my grace and of my redeeming 
power : " Suffer little children to come unto me." 

The first duty, that devolves upon those who have 
the care of human beings, is of course physical ; it per- 
tains to the animal, the material part of human nature, 
because that is first developed. The next development 
is unquestionably moral ; the child begins to feel, before 
he manifests much understanding. It is unquestiona- 
ble, that the conscience is developed much earlier, than 
they, whose observation has not been specifically di- 
rected to this point, are prepared to believe. It is cer- 
tain that the heart is very early developed ; and God 
seems, in the very manner of the development of the 
faculties of human nature at successive periods, to indi- 
cate the kind of care, the kind of instruction, and the 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 157 

kind of influence, which should be brought to bear upon 
human nature. Last of all seems to come the higher 
range of the intellectual powers. 

The first duty, touching the character and interest 
of man as a moral being, is to bring him under the 
moral government of Jesus Christ. The first duty with 
the mind of man is to make him understand and feel 
his want and his guilt as a sinner. The first and most 
important lesson, that a mother can convey to the heart 
and the understanding of her child, is, that he is the 
degenerate shoot of a degenerate vine, and that in Christ 
alone is his help. His little mind should begin to un- 
derstand first the story of redeeming and incarnate 
love — the history of Him who became an infant, and 
then the " Man of sorrows," and then the bleeding Yic- 
tim, and then the living Intercessor and the omnipotent 
King, to raise us from our ruin ; and the first attrac- 
tions of the little heart, beyond the father and the mother 
that begat and that nurture, should be to the great Ben- 
efactor, that has come to redeem. < Suffer your little 
ones to come to me,' said Jesus : from them that are 
indifferent, and from them that have objections to them, 
he seems to turn to mothers, and say, l Bring your little 
ones to me.' 

The first duty to man, as an immortal being and the 
subject of God's moral government, is to induce him, 
just as rapidly as his affections and will are developed, 
to break the bands that bind him to the kingdom of 
darkness, and to bring him, an intelligent and a volun- 
tary subject, into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, to 
teach him to love, to teach him to obey, to teach him to 
serve his « God manifest in the flesh." And it is an 
interesting object of investigation, to see what full pro- 

14 



158 SERMON VI. 

vision God has made for the reclaiming of man from 
his apostacy, the introduction and the conservation of 
man in " the kingdom of his dear Son" — and that, from 
the earliest period of his existence. 

There is something very wonderful in the family- 
constitution ; there is something in it. which even the 
Church herself has not fully understood, but which 
many indications in Providence show that she is going 
to understand more fully. There is more power in the 
family constitution, there is more moral power in a 
mother, than the world has begun to conceive, than 
even Christian mothers have yet begun fully to appre- 
hend. And, as they advance in faith on God's promi- 
ses, — as they rise in strength of a holy confidence, that 
seizes the promise of an unchanging God, — as they 
become intelligent in those great purposes of his moral 
government, which pertain to us, and which are essen- 
tial to direct us in the right discharge of duty, — we 
have no question that the moral power of the mother 
will rise ; and just as far as we get away from Pagan- 
ism, and all its degradation of the female sex, just as 
far as we get away from the foolish and romantic ideas 
of woman, that prevailed in the days of chivalry, — just 
so far shall we come into the clear and glorious light 
of Christianity, and woman will be, what God meant 
she should be in his hand, the regenerator of the human 
race. 

There is a peculiarity in the maternal feeling, that 
no man, who feels himself identified with the interests 
of the human race, can observe without himself feeling 
the deepest interest. There is something in a mother's 
love, that cannot have been unintended ; there is a rea- 
son for that peculiar delicacy and tenderness — for even 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 159 

that tenderness of tone, which we cannot imitate ; there 
is a meaning in the fact, that the musical scale of a 
mother's voice is pitched differently from ours. It is 
one of God's great instruments, for fitting her to reach 
man in those periods of his existence, when every thing 
is tender in his body and in his soul. 

There is an affinity between the feelings of a mother 
and a child, that does not exist in kind or degree be- 
tween the father and the child, indicating a peculiarity 
in the duty and a peculiarity in the responsibility. I 
may say, in passing, (because I deem it of importance,) 
that perhaps there will become, for a time, extravagant, 
and exaggerated, and unharmonious, and unauthorized 
views of the duty of mothers, and that fathers will for- 
get their peculiar station, — for it is one of great pecu- 
liarity, and it is one of equal responsibility different in 
kind. I wish not to encourage any exaggerated view ; 
I wish not to roll more burdens upon the tender sex. 
than God has placed ; but my specific duty will lead me 
peculiarly to speak, and alone to speak, of maternal duty. 

There is something in the entire helplessness of hu- 
man nature, in the entire dependence of human nature, — 
there is something in the imitative propensities of chil- 
dren, — there is something in that perfect confidence, 
that characterizes children, — which fits them to come 
so fully, so entirely, under the kind and powerful in- 
fluence of the enlightened and sanctified maternal 
heart ; and the noblest object on the footstool of God is 
a Christian mother, moulding human nature in the first 
stages of its earthly and of its immortal existence. Oh ! 
that I might have light from God, to help even mothers 
this day to estimate their high calling and their holy 
commission. 



160 SERMON VI. 

No fruit of sin has been more fatal, than the misun- 
derstanding of female duty and female character. One 
of the striking characteristics of all heathen lands is the 
condition of woman. When the Brahmin priest was 
reproached by the missionary, because he saw a woman 
dragging her entire length from the point of the com- 
mencement of her dreadful pilgrimage to the temple — 
(it lay entirely through a large tract covered with mud, 
and she was dragging her body through the filth) — > 
" There !" said the missionary, "that is one of the fruits 
of your system !" " Well, what is that ?" replied the 
Brahmin ; " it is only a woman !" That tells the char- 
acteristic feature of their dark and debasing system ; 
"it is only a woman !" And what means the Turkish 
harem, where woman is but the animal ? What means 
it ? — The light of Christianity has not shone. What is 
the present moral and social condition of France — 
France, that made the desperate experiment of rejecting 
Christianity ? It is a fact, that even the French lan- 
guage itself is destitute of the sweet word Home, and 
all its sacred, tender associations. I rejoice to say that 
God is doing great things for France ; but I speak of it 
now as a nation in the whole, a nation of mighty intel- 
lect, a nation of immense intellectual power and pro- 
gress, — but a nation, that, as a nation, has not a domes- 
tic life ; and woman is not known in France (not known 
in France as a nation) as she is in England and in the 
colonies and the countries that have sprung from Eng- 
land. And I rejoice to say, that French writers are 
beginning to tell their nation the truth — 'Until you 
estimate woman and the marriage contract, and the 
marriage relation and the maternal relation differently, 
it is in vain that you essay the changes of political gov- 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 161 

ernment ; we must have a change at the fireside, and 
we must begin to have a sacred home.' 

But although it is evident, that the nations which 
speak the English language are in advance of the rest 
of the world on this momentous subject, we have no 
reason for boasting ; and it will but injure us to reflect 
upon that fact, if we do not besides reflect upon the fact 
that we are very, very far below the light we have, and 
very far from discharging our duties. I speak even of 
the higher classes of female mind ; I speak even of our 
Christian mothers ; and I say it with the profound re- 
spect that I feel in my heart for the mothers in Israel — 
that even they have much, very much to learn — much, 
very much to attain. 

I wish, in this stage of the subject, to direct your at- 
tention to a very remarkable prophecy — remarkable, as 
being the closing up of the wonderful series of prophe- 
cies in the ancient Testament. It is in the book of 
Malachi, the last chapter, and the closing verses : — 

" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before 
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord : 
and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, 
and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come 
and smite the earth with a curse." 

I understand that prophecy to involve two points. 
The first is, that Christianity (the primary meaning of 
the prophecy referring of course to its introduction, 
and the secondary meaning to its expansion and more 
complete influence on the human race) — that the first 
influence of the introduction, and the chief influence 
of the spreading, of Christianity in the world is to 
restore parental affection. You recollect, that Paul 
has said, that one of the characteristics of the heathen 

14* 



162 SERMON VI. 

is, that they are " without natural affection ;" and you 
recollect, that when our missionaries went to the Sand- 
wich Islands, they found them rapidly undergoing 
depopulation by " infanticide, and mothers would dig 
the graves of their own infants yet living, bury them, 
throw the earth upon them, spread the mat over them, 
and (while the child was perhaps yet struggling) eat 
their meal in self-complacency." That is the stern 
picture of man without the Bible, and that, in greater 
or less degrees, pervades all Pagan countries and every 
country, just in proportion as the gospel of the Son of 
God fails of effect ; and the first meaning of this pro- 
phecy I understand to be the restoration of parental 
love. And the second I take to be the proper inclina- 
tion of parental love. For now the grand evil in 
Christian countries is, not that parents do not love 
their children, but that their love is often the ruin of 
their children. Misguided parental love now charac- 
terizes nominal Christendom. The great care of the 
greater part of parents is for the earthly welfare of their 
children ; but when the Spirit of God shall come, as 
predicted in Malachi, parents will begin to feel that 
their children are immortal, and that they are to train 
them for glory and immortality, and not for honor — 
the bubble that bursts in the hand of him that seizes 
it, — and not for the pampering of the flesh, — and not 
for the attainment of a station, from which death can 
cast them down to perdition, but for the attainment of 
those seats of glory, from which he shall never be cast 
out that once has possession by grace. The restoration 
of parental affection, and the guidance of parental affec- 
tion, are to characterize the advancing march of Chris- 
tianity through our sinful, wretched world. 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 163 

In every age of Christianity there have undoubtedly 
been individual parents, that have understood (to a 
remarkable degree, compared with those around them) 
their parental duties. We mean not to say, that there 
are not now in the churches a great many mothers, that 
have a very wide, comprehensive, active view of pa- 
rental duty ; we mean not to say, that there are not 
now in the churches women, who, if their character 
and their maternal history and their domestic life 
could be held out to the world, might be a model to 
the world. We speak not of these blessed exceptions, 
we speak of the general fact ; and all the remarks which 
we make upon the subject, must be understood in their 
general accuracy and general bearing. But we be- 
lieve that a day is dawning, like the day prophesied 
by Malachi. And one of the first fruits, perhaps, of 
the wide awakening of the consciences of mothers and 
the hearts of mothers has been the formation of Ma- 
ternal Associations. 

Association ! The world is just beginning to under- 
stand its power, in some of the highest interests of man. 
And I confess that it was not without surprise, coming 
from a country, in which these associations for mothers 
are rapidly spreading, and coming from a Church, in 
the bosom of which I have witnessed from year to year 
their blessed influence — it was not without surprise, 
that I found intelligent and devoted Christian mothers 
here, with strong and even insuperable objections to 
the existence of Maternal Associations. I therefore 
come with this embarrassment ; I come as an American, 
acquainted with American institutions and American 
society, and unacquainted comparatively with English 
institutions and English society, and therefore I may 



164 SERMON VI. 

not speak wisely ; but you will understand what I say 
to be spoken with that degree of light that I possess, 
and for that alone can I be responsible. My impression 
is that mothers ought to associate ; under what cir- 
cumstances, and by what principles to be regulated, 
must be left to the wisdom of those that are in the par- 
ticular locality, judging of local circumstances and of 
local habits ; but I know not why the great and glo- 
rious principle of combined strength and combined 
counsel, when two are stronger than one, should not 
be brought to bear upon the general duty of mothers. 
I can conceive of but one general objection ; and that 
is, that mothers may feel that their duties are dis- 
charged by being members of, or going to, the Maternal 
Association ; whereas that would be an utter perver- 
sion, for the design is to fit mothers for the duties of 
home by mutual counsel and mutual encouragement. 

My commission is to recommend to you, this day, 
the formation and the universal adoption (under what- 
ever modifications you may find best) of Maternal 
Associations. And as your patience will allow me, I 
will dwell in confirmation of this position upon the ar- 
guments, that are most prominent before my own mind. 

1. The first consideration that I urge is, the tendency 
of Maternal Associations to promote maternal education. 

There may be an appearance of the want of sufficient 
respect, there may be an appearance of invidious com- 
parison, when I say that mothers need to be educated. 
But I think that there is not this want of respect ; for 
I think that I should say it even to my own mother,— 
'Are there not many things, that might have been 
rectified in my education, if you had had the light that 
a kind God is beginning to pour upon the great subject 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 165 

of maternal duty?' — and I should expect, from that 
good sense and that piety which, I know, characterize 
her, to hear her say, ' Yes, my son ! every day that I 
live I am discovering my faults, my own neglects, my 
own want of a sense of maternal responsibility, my 
own want of a deep and solemn consideration of the 
importance of education ; willingly would 1 go back, 
with the light I now have, and rear my family again.' 

There are unquestionably two classes of mothers in 
society ; and therefore there is great propriety in the 
establishment of two kinds, or, at least two branches, 
of Maternal Associations. There are those, who are 
competent to be to each other mutual instructors j and 
there are those, who, from the want of advantages of 
instruction, had better be subjected to the guidance 
of those, to whom God has given more light. I say, 
then, l let there be the Mutual Instruction Maternal 
Association, and the Maternal Association in which 
one is instructed and the other a learner.' And oh ! 
if there be an angel-visit of mercy on this earth, it is 
for the enlightened Christian mother to go to the habita- 
tion of her poor and uninstructed sister, and teach her 
how to bear her burden, how to train her family. If 
God has given her light and given her love, let her go, 
as she has " freely received," and "freely give" it to 
the needy. It is worth more than the money and the 
clothing and the bread, though the money and the 
clothing and the bread should come with it. 

I need not convince this assembly of the importance 
of the moral influence of a mother ; I may dwell upon 
it for a moment, only to produce a deeper sense of that 
which we already know. It is unquestionable, that 
the hopes of human society and the hopes of the 



166 S E-R M O N VI. 

Church of God are to be found in the character, in the 
views, and in the conduct of mothers. Though it is 
taking up the very lowest department of this subject, 
yet I will state one single fact on the civil bearings of 
Maternal Associations. I suppose, that, if you could 
trace the history of every criminal, that stands at the 
bar of your courts of justice in this great metropolis, 
(where there is so much good and so much evil,) you 
would find, that nearly, every poor criminal there went 
through as regular an education, as any physician or 
lawyer in your land ; and I suppose, that you would 
find, that they had been trained, when children, as 
regularly by their mothers for the prison and the 
gibbet, as in our schools children are trained for the 
important duties of life. When I pass through your 
streets, and see the places where the polluting and fiery 
poison is sold, and see the mothers with the little 
infants at their breasts going into those nurseries of 
crime, those hot-beds of poverty and pollution, those 
gateways of death and hell, my heart bleeds within 
me. A mother, instead of the milk from her breast to 
nourish, and the "milk" of heavenly truth for the im- 
mortal mind of her child, pouring into its little system 
the fiery poison of hell ! Bear with me ; and, if I 
thought that there were a vender of the dreadful poison 
here, I could not but turn aside from the theme com- 
mitted to me, to plead one moment with him; — so 
cruel does it seem to me, for men to sell that which 
they know is to ruin body and soul, and to hand out 
the fiery glass to a mother to give it to her little child. 
Oh ! is there no way of inducing these wicked men to 
quit their dreadful employ ? It is all in vain that we 
establish prisons, that we carry out the penitentiary 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 167 

system ; we shall only have to do it, so long as the 
mothers are training their children as they are. We 
must have some improvement in the domestic edu- 
cation of the poor, if we want an improvement in our 
seats of crime and of poverty. And there is moral 
power enough in the Church to accomplish it. I know 
that sometimes there are difficulties ; but I have seen 
these difficulties conquered. I have seen the perse- 
vering visits of one Christian lady conquer the obdurate 
heart of a most hardened drunkard, and at last make 
her sit down a willing learner at the feet of her bene- 
factor ; and I have seen the change in the order of the 
little cottage, the cleanliness of the children, the im- 
proved dress, the orderly habits, the regular attendance 
at the sanctuary, the improved disposition and conduct 
of the little children, all coming from the fact that one 
Christian mother, who knew the duty of a mother, 
and the importance of a mother, had gone to this poor 
woman, and waited on her il in the bowels of com- 
passion" that belong to Christ and to his people, until 
she had persuaded her to do her duty as a mother. 

I dwell on this one branch of the subject — the civil 
influence alone, that I may on that rest your conviction 
of all the higher results, that are to come from the 
right guiding of a mother's mind, and the right guiding 
of human character between the ages of two years and 
twelve or fifteen, which is the peculiar sphere of the 
mother's influence. I wish to " magnify the office" of 
the mother ; and I think the whole tendency of these 
Maternal Associations is to bring it out, and hold it 
out to the view of mothers and of the world, in all its 
magnitude and importance. Napoleon Buonaparte was 
a man of shrewd observation, and he once said to 



168 SERMON VI. 

Madam Campan — " The old systems of education are 
worth nothing ; what is wanted for the proper training 
of young persons in France ?" With keen discern- 
ment and great truth she replied in one word — 
" Mothers." This word struck the emperor ; and the 
thought grew upon him. "Behold, then," said he, 
" an entire system of education ! you must make 
mothers, that know how to train their children." 

The influence of Rousseau, with all his infidelity, 
has been in some respects good on France. His object 
unquestionably in one of his works was to give citizens 
to the nation ; and he commenced with mothers. " The 
mother's milk," said he, " should be the milk of liberty." 
He resorted to the mothers, because he wanted to bring 
back mankind to truth, simplicity, and noble sentiments 
based on benevolence ; and all that was good, — for 
there was some good, and it is growing still, — all that 
was good in the terrible French revolution, it appears 
to me, can be traced to the influence of his writings, 
almost the only pure stream that did flow in those 
times. But he failed, in trusting too little to the im- 
portance of the character of the mother, and having no 
sense of the necessity of training children for heaven. 

Man was born for the atmosphere of love ; and when 
we tear the little child from its mother, and send it to 
a stranger, and to the stern teaching of a stranger, no 
one can tell how he feels his loss, and how his little 
heart sighs for his home, and for the smile of his 
mother, which was the sun of his home. Virtue is not 
so much taught to children as infused into them ; and 
infused into them at their first stage. Pestalozzi, the 
great Swiss instructor, has traced what may be (it 
appears to me that it probably is, but, whether it is or 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 169 

not, it suggests an important principle) the first dis- 
covery of the principles of moral government in the 
intercourse of the child and his mother. (By the first 
idea of moral government I mean this — I have a will 
of my own, but there is a will exterior to mine and 
above mine, and that will has a right to limit mine.) 
He supposed a little child to begin to move his arm, 
and, as is natural, to find pleasure in the freedom of 
the movement, to find his delight in that motion to a 
certain length ; but he supposes him to meet, in trying 
one day to make this movement, the obstruction of a 
table — and perhaps it is the first idea he gets of exter- 
nal existence ; then he supposes, that the mother comes 
in, checks the child, and forbids him to do something 
that he wishes to do ; the child begins to discover the 
difference between the involuntary table, the mere 
mass of matter that physically obstructed his move- 
ment, and the interposition of a will that interrupted 
him, and he supposes the first idea that there is a will 
out of us and above us to come thus ; and then con- 
science wakes up with the feeling, £ I ought to submit to 
that will.' And the great secret of family-training is, 
to teach the child that he is to bow his will to the will 
that governs in the family ; and then the great secret 
of religious training is, to teach him to bow his will to 
the will of God, and to say. " Thy will be done :" and, 
if he were brought to this on earth, he would come to 
stand in heaven among those shining ranks, whose 
entire feeling is, " Thy will be done." And how pe- 
culiarly is the mother fitted to exert this kind of influ- 
ence on the mind of her child, because she can temper 
the sternness of that rigid will, that does not bend to 
the child's desire, with all the sweetness of love, and 

15 



170 SERMON VI 



'^Mi- 



appeal to all the child's sense of dependence and of obli- 
gation to make it acceptable ! The eloquence of a 
mother's lips must first persuade the child to virtue. 

The first impressions, that should be made upon 
man's angelic mind, unquestionably are such as we 
trust will flourish in heaven ; and God has committed 
to mothers the work of teaching their children, to pre- 
fer honor to fortune, to succor distress, to love their 
fellows, to raise their hearts to God. I have been 
much struck with a remark made by a French writer. 
Of sixty-nine monarchs, who have worn the French 
crown, (he says,) only three have loved the people, 
and all those three were reared by their mothers with- 
out the intervention of pedagogues. A. Bossuet edu- 
cated the tyrant Louis XIV. ; his mother did not train 
him. St. Louis was trained by Blanche ; Louis XII. 
was trained by Maria of Cleves ; and Henri IV. was 
trained by Jane of Albret ; and these were really the 
fathers of their people." " Good professors can make 
good scholars" says this author ; « but good mothers 
alone can make good men. 1 '' 

The incidental effect of our Maternal Associations is 
to elicit attention and talent to the great subject of ma- 
ternal duty, and to draw forth those great lessons of 
wisdom, that mothers need to learn in order to fit them 
to fulfil it. 

2. I will present a second consideration : the tenden- 
cy of mothers associating together, as mothers, to confer 
on their duties and their difficulties, is to quicken the 
sense of their responsibility. 

As " iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the 
countenance of his friend." There is something in the 
social principle, when consecrated to the great work of 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 171 

personal holiness, on which the blessing of God seems 
peculiarly to rest. Hence there is so much said in the 
Bible of the value of social prayer ; hence it is said, 
" Exhort one another daily." And I think it an advan- 
tage to have system in this. It is an advantage for 
mothers to meet periodically, and to have regular sea- 
sons for exhorting each other in each other's duties, 
and for increasing in each other's minds the sense of 
those duties. A periodical revival of this impression 
must, with the blessing of God, be very useful. 

3. I come now to a third consideration — the tendency 
of such associations to increase family and maternal 
religion. 

On this subject I speak chiefly from the testimony of 
mothers. I have seen extracts from many letters writ- 
ten by mothers, and I have the testimony of mothers in 
my own church, that they have found that every meet- 
ing of the Maternal Association sent them home to their 
closets, humbled under a sense of their deficiencies, and 
casting themselves more fully on covenant grace to aid 
them in the discharge of maternal duty. 

One influence is found in the fact, that they have led 
to the collection of the best writings calculated to im- 
press a mother's heart, and the bringing them together 
to hear them read ; and it is unquestionable, as a gene- 
ral principle, that a thing read in a large company is 
altogether more impressive than that read alone. When 
the best writings of the best heads and the best hearts 
are brought before a collected assembly of mothers, I 
think that the influence must be happy, in elevating the 
standard of maternal piety, and having the mothers go 
back to the domestic circle to elevate the standard of 
maternal religion. I know the fact, that, when an in- 



172 SERMON VI. 



dividual mother has received a special blessing from 
God in answer to prayer, when an individual mother 
has found her endeavors owned and blessed of God, and 
when she has gone to the meeting to tell it — each 
mother has said, " Then I must get nearer to God my- 
self, and wait more faithfully upon him, and he will give 
me, too, the blessing which he has given to my sister." 

4. I urge a fourth consideration in recommendation 
of Maternal Associations ; they tend to facilitate the 
discharge of maternal duties. 

In the first place, they increase the information of 
mothers. And I will just run over a little catalogue of 
their duties, on which they need information. The 
mother's art is the most difficult perhaps in this world. 
She has to train the body through the most delicate and 
exposed period of its existence ; she has to carry it 
through the period, when particular diseases invade it ; 
she has to attend to the physical development of the 
entire man, in beauty, in strength, in healthf illness. 
And then at the same time she has to rear the intellect 
and the heart — to judge of a thousand difficult questions 
of conscience, that are rising up almost every day in 
her sphere. It is a difficult art, I say ; and, like every 
other art, we must have mothers more and more edu- 
cated in it, to carry on human nature to its highest 
possible degree of attainment and perfection. If an 
apprentice must be sent, for a certain term of years, to 
learn the simple trade of making a watch, or a shoe, or 
a hat, what shall we say of her, that undertakes to 
mould the mind of immortal man, to prepare it to be 
steadfast amid the trials of life, and then to pass to the 
spheres of endless glory? Well might angels wish to 
take the place of a mother, when they see how much is 



< 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 173 

to be done in forming the future character of the man, 
in those years, when he lies a helpless infant on his 
mother's lap. I speak from the testimony of missionary 
mothers ; and I delight to recommend it to those, that 
feel for their missionary sisters in this land. It is now- 
becoming extensively introduced in missionary stations. 
I was present at a meeting of the Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions, in America, when this 
question was agitated for many hours ; and it was ex- 
ceedingly difficult to know what to do ; a missionary 
carries his children with him, or they are born in the 
country where he has gone, and they are cut off entirely 
from Christian privileges ; if they go outside the boun- 
daries of their home, they are exposed to the most de- 
structive influences ; what was the missionary to do ? 
The question came back to us with the most heart-rend- 
ing anxieties of Christian mothers and Christian fathers, 
and it seemed as if we must call them back — as if it 
were too much to ask them, not only to sacrifice their 
earthly comforts, but to lay their children's souls (as it 
were) upon the altar ; for it seemed as though they 
could not guard them. But the manner, in which 
some of the missionary ladies have written upon the 
subject, is beginning to cheer our hearts. We begin to 
think, that what they want is, to make a more complete 
society of Christian mothers, and to train their children 
under its influence ; and, if it is difficult, God will hear 
their prayers and give them peculiar help. Missionary 
mothers are rejoicing now in the formation of these As- 
sociations, which bring as it were the entire power of 
the mothers of the station to bear upon the duty of each 
individual mother in the church. 

But I was speaking of the points, on which mothers 

15* 



174 SERMON VI. 

need instruction, and on which these Maternal Associa- 
tions furnish it. They need to understand the subject 
of health of course ; they need to understand the whole 
subject of the physical development of man. For man's 
body is a wonderful organ. Just see what his hand 
alone can be taught to accomplish — what he can do as 
a painter, what he can do as a musician, what he can 
do as a writer ; — the thousand uses to which the human 
hand can be brought, how much power their lies hid 
in this machine, and how much skill is demanded prop- 
erly to begin, and by and by to intrust to other hands 
the full, developing of the physical power of man. 
Then she needs for his intellectual education another 
class of information ;■ and then another for his religious 
education ; and still another for the formation of his 
moral habits, and rightly to interest him in his own 
proper department of education. No more difficult 
subject can be found than man in his infancy. Mater- 
nal Associations tend to facilitate the discharge of ma- 
ternal duties by throwing increased light upon this diffi- 
cult subject. 

And they do it by fortifying the determination of 
mothers. The great struggle in a mother's heart is be- 
tween her tenderness, that cannot bear to behold the 
sufferings of her child, much less to inflict them, and at 
the same time the duty faithfully to restrain and reprove 
her child ; and, perhaps, there is not a mother, who will 
not find her determination more fortified, when, meet- 
ing her sisters, they have compared their own cases, 
and seen the limits to which duty carried others when 
refusing to inflict pain, and the limits to whiclrduty 
carried them when inflicting it. 

They tend likewise to facilitate the discharge of ma- 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 175 

'ternal duties by encouraging mothers. And here I 
wish to meet an objection, which seems to imply, that, 
if a lady joins a Maternal Association, she has peculiar 
need of being instructed. I look at the subject just in 
the other light ; I would say. if the kind providence of 
God has given to any mother peculiar light on this sub- 
ject, peculiar strength and peculiar faith, she is the very 
person to go to her sisters and given them the benefit 
of the light God has given her, and give them the 
benefit of the faith and confidence which inspire her 
own soul. Here is the very sphere for her benevolence 
and her talent. 

5. And I close my arguments in favor of Maternal 
Associations, by presenting the fact, that they lead to 
concerted prayer for children. 

I well remember to have heard it remarked, long 
before Maternal Associations were instituted, that, in a 
particular church in the State of New York, a number 
of fathers set apart an evening in the week to meet and 
pray for their children ; and the remark was made to 
me fifteen years ago, that every child of those families 
was converted to God ; there was not one left out. 
Oh ! it must be good for mothers to meet together and 
talk of the value of the souls of their children. It must 
be good for mothers to meet together, and talk of the 
guilt and danger of their children, and together talk 
over the precious promises that encourage them, and 
together bow them before the mercy-seat, and plead, 
(those " two or three gathered together,") that God 
would convert their children's souls. I need not dwell 
upon such an argument. It is certainly good for you 
to pray alone for your children; and it is certainly 
good for you to get your sister to pray also for your 



176 SERMON VI. 






children. It is good to have regular periodical prayer 
for your children, as well as to have constant family- 
prayer. 

And thus I close my advocacy for Maternal Associ- 
ations. 1 have expounded to you the honest con- 
victions and the warm feelings of my own heart in 
respect to these important Associations ; but (as I re- 
marked before) I am unable to judge particularly of 
the duty of others, because it is a recent institution, 
and may need to be greatly modified in its introduction 
to different states of society. 

Let me close with a word more particularly ad- 
dressed to mothers. 

Mothers ! give your children every advantage — 
every advantage that truth can give, — every advantage 
that a holy example can give, — every advantage that 
much pleading the promises of God can give. You 
feel for the diseases of the body of your child ; you are 
speedy in sending for the physician, when the body is 
diseased ; oh ! feel for that immortal disease of sin, and 
send for the great Physician. And, if he comes not at 
the first knock, knock again ; for he says " it shall be 
opened ;" ask again, for he says that " it shall be given 
you;" seek again, for he says that "ye shall find." 
Oh ! seek salvation for your children. Seek that they 
may be converted early ; for if you want testimonies, 
there are enough of us that can give a painful testi- 
mony, that it is too late to be converted at twenty and 
at twenty-one. Not that we may not — not that we are 
not — for some of us reached even that period ; but 
what we mean is this — it is too late for many im- 
portant purposes. It is so late that it gives, to the end 
of life, fearful struggles with the habits of the heart. 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 177 

It is too late, because there is so much left unlearned, 
that we should have learned if we had been pious in 
our early youth ; we should have gone so much deeper 
into the counsels of God, if we had come early to 
Christ, and, like Timothy, learned the Scriptures on 
our mother's lap, and followed the finger of a mother's 
love as it pointed to the Savior. Oh ! pray that your 
sons may not grow up in sin ; pray that they may be 
converted in their earliest years ; labor that they may 
be converted in their earlier years. Pray that your 
daughters, from the first development of their moral 
faculties, their moral being, may learn to love their 
God and Savior, and be trained for usefulness here 
and glory hereafter. Your responsibility is great ; for 
the evils of society are to be rectified in the young. 
Mothers ! with you, who can harm them, who can 
train them, rests this responsibility ; and may God's 
blessed Spirit impress it on your hearts, and lead you 
to seek light and grace at the fountain from which they 
come. 

Mothers ! bring up your little ones to Jesus. Bring 
them by faith ; and if Satan seems to stand and re- 
buke, if a wicked and unbelieving world, by its ex- 
ample and its influence and its maxims, seems to 
rebuke, still bring your little ones to Christ ; still press 
even to his feet, and never bear your mother's burdens 
alone, but roll them upon a breast that beats in sym- 
pathy with yours ; roll them upon the heart, and roll 
them upon the arms of the blessed Redeemer. Bring 
them to Jesus as their Savior. Bring them to Jesus as 
their Sovereign, and teach their wills to bow to his will. 
Bring them to Jesus as their pattern. It is said of a 
Grecian mother, that, when Alexander the Great was 



178 SERMON VI. 

passing in the crowd, with his tall helmet and waving 
plumes, she raised up her child above her head, and said 
to him, " Look there ! that is Alexander the Great, and 
you must be another." We only point to the heathen 
mother, to teach you to take a high example ; take the 
example of Jesus, and teach your child his blessed 
history, and say, " There, my child ! be like Jesus ; 
tread in the footsteps of Jesus." 

I see before me some dear little children. Next Sun- 
day afternoon I hope to address a whole sermon to 
children, and to tell them how much we, ministers, 
love them, how much we, ministers, long to see them 
Christians ; I hope then to say something to them, that 
the God of grace may bless to their little hearts ; but I 
am unwilling that they should go away this morning 
without a word. ■ Dear little children ! look at me, 
look at me as your friend ; look at me as a minister of 
Christ sent by the blessed Jesus to teach you. I want 
you to love Christ ; for I have seen dear little children 
that loved Christ ; I have seen dear little children, that 
wept because they had wicked hearts; I have seen 
dear little children, that loved to speak of the blessed 
Savior, who came and died for them. Are you such 
a child ? Do you repent for sin ? Do you know how 
wicked a heart you have? Do you know how God 
is displeased even with the sins of children ? do you 
know that you need the Holy Spirit to make you holy, 
and that you need the blood of Jesus to save you ? 
Dear little children ! have you read the story of the 
Savior's sufferings ? Do you remember how they 
whipped him, and how the blood ran down his body 
as they scourged him % Have you read how he went 
out into the garden, and wept and prayed and lay upon 



MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 179 

the ground in an agony? Have you never thought of 
it all ? It was because he loved your little souls, that 
he bore it. You know he never sent little children 
away from him ; he always took them in his arms and 
blessed them; and you may be sure, that, when he 
prayed in that garden, he did not forget you. And 
when they nailed him to the cross, and put upon his 
head the cruel crown of thorns, and the blood ran 
down, dear children ! he was dying for you. If he 
had not died, you must have gone to hell ; but he died, 
that you might be taken into heaven at last. Will you 
love him ? Will you give him your hearts now ? I 
seem to see him going from seat to seat, and he stops 
at the little children ; many great men would pass you 
by, but Jesus Christ will not. He seems to stand at the 
door of little children's hearts, and to say, " Behold, I 
stand at the door and knock ; if any" little children 
" open the door, I will come in" to be their Savior. 
Will you open your hearts to him, dear little children? 
Will you say, £ Come, blessed Savior ! and I will be 
thine obedient child ; I will love thee, I will serve thee, 
and then, when I die, and my body is laid in the cold 
grave, I hope that my soul will rise with holy angels 
to love and praise and pray !' 



SERMON VII. 



CHILDREN URGED TO HEARKEN TO INSTRUC- 
TION, AND TO FEAR THE LORD. 



" Come, ye children ! hearken unto me ; 1 will teach 
you the fear of the Lord" — Psalm xxxiv. 11. 

You know, when a minister preaches, he divides his 
sermon into different parts ; sometimes we call them, 
heads of the sermon ; and there are some that under- 
stand it so well, that they have their pencil and paper 
and take down each one of the heads. Now I want 
you to recollect them, whether you write them down 
or not ; because your teacher, or your parents, will ask 
you what the heads of the sermon were. I want every 
child to understand now, what the heads of the sermon 
mean ; they are the different points about which the 
minister makes his remarks. 

Now I am going to give you two general heads in 
this sermon, and then, under each one of these general 
heads, several smaller particular heads. 

I. I am going to tell you, in the first place, several 
reasons why children should pay great attention to ser- 
mons. " Come, ye children, hearken unto me." 

I shall give you four reasons why every child ought 
to listen very attentively to the preacher ; now, under- 

16 



182 SERMON VII. 



I: 



stand that you must recollect these heads — these four 
reasons that 1 give. 

1. The first is this : if children do not pay great at- 
tention to the sermon, they cannot learn. Children 
come to church to learn, just as they go to Sabbath- 
school to learn ; but you cannot learn what the minis- 
ter teaches you, if you do not attend to it. If there are 
two children in a class at school, that are going to 
study a lesson in geography — and if one of them, all 
the time that he ought to be studying, is looking about, 
is talking to some other child, is reading some other 
book, or is thinking about something else besides the 
lesson in geography, which they have to learn — and 
if the other child attends to the geography, reads the 
lesson over, thinks of it, or, when the teacher is making 
any explanation, listens to every thing which the 
teacher says — you know which of those children will 
be prepared to recite the lesson in geography when 
the time comes. Just so in a sermon : that child that 
fixes his or her eye upon the minister, that child that 
attends to the minister, is the child that will learn the 
precious truths which the minister teaches ; but the 
child that is looking about, that is talking about any 
thing, or that is thinking about something else, cannot 
learn any thing that is taught in the pulpit. I have 
been quite accustomed to preach and to talk a great 
deal to the children in my church, and I have some 
very dear children there that I love a great deal ; and 
I love them, because they have paid so much attention 
to what I have preached to them from the pulpit, and 
what I have said to them in the meetings where I 
have addressed them. There was one little girl whom 
I will tell you about, to show you what kind of hearers 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 183 

we want among children. I have noticed her, as she 
sat always in her father's seat in the church, remark- 
ably fixing her eyes on me as soon as I rose up in 
the pulpit to begin the exercises ; but I did not know 
so much about her, till one day, when I was sick and 
confined to my chamber, her father called to see me, 
and began to talk about his dear little Mary, that was 
about nine or ten years of age. Said he, " Have you 
ever noticed how my little girl sits in church?" I 
said that I had not particularly noticed any thing but 
this, that I used to love to turn to that side of the 
church, because, if any one is preaching, he loves to 
see every person's eye on him, and, whenever I looked, 
this little girl's bright eyes were always fixed on me. 
But her father told me more about her. He said, that 
from the time I rose in the pulpit, she never turned 
her head one moment away from me, except some- 
times when I said any thing that touched her heart 
very much, she would turn round to her mother, and 
say, " Is not that sweet ?" and that was the only time 
when she would turn away from the preacher. But 
here was what struck me with great force about this 
little girl, one so young: it was the custom of this fa- 
ther, every Sabbath afternoon, after the second service, 
to go home and get all his children around him, and 
begin to talk over the sermon of the morning, and 
then the sermon of the afternoon ; they found the text, 
and each one read it, and then the father would begin 
to tell what he recollected of the sermon, and then the 
mother repeated what she recollected and that he had 
omitted ; and the father assured me, that sometimes 
they forgot one of the heads of the sermon, one of the 
divisions, and they would turn to little Mary, and she 



184 SERMON VII. 

would recollect it. I was quite surprised ; but I have 
learned more about little children since then, and I 
find that they can be very profitable hearers of sermons; 
and ever since that time it has encouraged me a great 
deal, even when I am preaching to grown people, to 
talk especially to children, because I find that dear 
little children can understand me ; and that is all a 
minister wants, for the people to understand him, and 
think about what he says. 

2. Now, children ! I have given you one reason 
why you should pay attention to sermons, and that is, 
that, if you do not, you cannot learn ; and the second 
reason is, that you cannot be made good but by learn- 
ing. You will find a text written in the New Testa- 
ment, that "faith cometh by hearing;" that is, it is 
when people hear the Bible read, and hear the sermon 
which explains the Bible, that they get faith in God, 
that they get to believe his truth, and then they feel 
its power upon their hearts. Recollect, dear children \ 
that it is not hearing words that will make you good ; 
I have known a little child, that would sit and look 
right at a person that was telling a story, and, if you 
were to go immediately afterwards and ask him what 
he had heard, he could tell you almost nothing about 
it ; and why? because, though his eyes were fixed upon 
the person that was speaking, his thoughts were going 
upon some other subject. And I am afraid now, 
that there are a great many children in this church, 
and even some of those that are looking right at me, 
that do not hear me rightly. I am afraid that they do 
not hear me talking, or know what I am saying. 
Who is that child, which is that child, that is not 
understanding what I am saying ? I want that child 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 185 

to think and know. It will do him no good to come 
to church, it will do him no good to go to Sabbath- 
school or any other school, if his mind is inattentive 
to what is said. You must understand the meaning 
of what is said ; and if there is any thing, the meaning 
of which you do not understand, you ought then to 
try and recollect as much about it as you can, and 
ask your parents, or ask your teacher, afterwards to 
explain it to you. And more than that, dear children ! 
when you hear sermons, you must listen just as if it 
was God himself that was speaking, because he sends 
us. We come from God to you ; we have a message 
from God to you. How very kind it is of the great 
God, that he will stoop from heaven and send a 
message to little children ! But he does it ; and where 
is that little child that dare be careless while we are 
delivering God's message 1 Children ! you ought to 
listen to sermons as for your life ; you ought to believe 
all that is said, as coming from God, and your hearts 
ought to feel it, and then you ought to go away from 
the church to obey it. 

3. Now I have given you two reasons why you 
should attend to sermons — in order that you may learn, 
and in order that you may be good ; and the third rea- 
son is this — because ministers love you. Dear chil- 
dren ! we love you ; we love you very much. We love 
you, because you have immortal souls, that will live 
when your bodies are dead ; and because you are going 
to the judgment seat of Christ, and going to eternity, to 
heaven or to hell ; and it is, that you may not go to 
hell, — it is, that you may not live in sin against God, — 
it is, that you may not keep those wicked hearts that 
offend God, -it is, that you may come to that blessed 

16* 



186 SERMON VII. 

Savior, who, when on earth, laid his hands on children 
and blessed them, — it is, that you may believe the gos- 
pel with your whole hearts, and die in peace and love 
and fellowship with Christ, that we come to preach to 
you. We have prayed for you, dear children ! we have 
felt for yon ; we feel for you now ; we love you ; and 
if we love you, will you not love us? and if you love 
us, will you not listen to us ? It is a great deal easier 
to preach to grown-up people, than it is to little chil- 
dren, — so many of you are restless and making a noise, 
and it is so much harder to explain things to you than 
to grown-up people ; and yet we are willing to do it. 
Oh ! it is very ungrateful in a little child, not to pay 
great attention to what we say, when we come here and 
try to teach you. And an ungrateful child never grows 
up to be a good man or woman. An ungrateful heart 
is one of the things of which God most complains. 
Every little child ought to be very grateful to his Sab-' 
bath school teacher, who comes so regularly, and sacri- 
fices so many comforts for you ; you ought to be very 
grateful to these teachers, to love them, and to pay them 
great attention. And so with the minister, who loves 
you, and feels for your souls, and prays to God on your 
behalf, and comes to instruct you, and tries to lead you 
to the Lamb of God, who has taken away your sins ; 
you ought to love him, and you ought to listen to him. 
4. And now I will give you a fourth reason why you 
should listen to the preacher, listen with your mind, 
and attend with your mind, as well as with your ear 
and eye ; it is because God himself speaks. I have 
already said, that God speaks through his ministers; 
but I want you now to treat it as a distinct reason. If 
the great God should come down here, as he did upon 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 187 

the top of Mount Sinai, in a cloud, and with lightnings 
and thunder and the sound of a trumpet, — if this house 
should tremble, and the ceiling, should open, and the 
glory of the eternal King should appear, and the voice 
of God should sound out, — all the children would lis- 
ten. Well, children ! it is just as really that eternal 
God, whom the angels adore, who is now speaking. 
He makes use of us ; but he will bring you into judg- 
ment at the last day for every sermon that you have 
heard ; and if you do not listen to them, if you reject 
them, then God will bring you into judgment for neg- 
lecting him and rejecting his message. 

Now, children ! do you all understand this first head, 
that children ought to pay great attention to the preach- 
er ? I have given you four reasons for it. The first is, 
that if you do not pay attention, you cannot learn ; and 
where is that child, that is willing to be stupid and 
ignorant — especially not to learn God's great and pre- 
cious truth ? The second is, that, if you do not pay 
great attention, with your eye, with your ear, with your 
hearts, you cannot be made good. The third is, be- 
cause ministers love you. And the fourth is. because 
God himself speaks to you by us. That you will see, 
when you come to read the rest of the verse ; and that 
is the next part of our subject. 

" Come, ye children ! hearken unto me." Well, what 
shall I teach you, when you listen ? I suppose now, 
that the greater part of these dear children will listen 
to me, for the rest of my sermon ; I suppose that they 
have made up their minds to listen very attentively and 
very solemnly ; and if so, try to feel what I say, and 
pray that the Holy Spirit of God may help you to re- 
member it and obey it. 



188 SERMON VII. 

II. " Come, ye children ! hearken unto me ; I will 

TEACH YOU THE FEAR OF THE LORD." I Want tO 

teach you, dear children, to fear God, 

Why ought you to fear God ? I am going to give you 
three reasons for that. 

1. The first reason why we ought to fear God is, be- 
cause he is so great. " Come, ye children ! hearken 
unto me;" I am now your minister, and I am your dear 
friend : come, listen to me, and I will teach you to fear 
the great God. When I was a little boy, this thought 
used often to come into my mind — l How is it possible 
that God never had a beginning?' Many and many a 
time I tried to carry my thoughts back before the world 
was, before the angels were — backward, backward into 
eternity — and thought, < How is it possible that God 
never had a beginning V — and then to carry my mind 
onward and onward, after we are dead, and after those 
that shall come next are dead, the next generation dead, 
the world burnt up, the judgment day passed, all of us 
in eternity, onward and onward and onward for ever- — 
and yet God will never cease to be. Oh ! what a great 
and awful Being is God ! He existed from eternity, he 
exists to eternity ; he exists in himself; no other being 
keeps him in existence ; he is God. He fills all im- 
mensity, all worlds, all the universe ; he sustains the 
planets, for v he made them ; he made the sun, he made 
the moon, he made the distant worlds, perhaps millions 
and millions of them : he made this world, he keeps it 
in being ; he made the beasts and the trees, the birds, 
and the fishes of the sea, all men and all children, and 
holds them in his hand. What a great God is he, that 
takes care of all this congregation ! — what a mighty 
God ! Well, this God, so great in power, who made the 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 189 

heavens and the earth, who built the everlasting moun- 
tains, and made the sea, — this God, whom the angels 
fear, — this great God, who cast down the rebel angels 
into hell, sent a deluge upon this wicked world and 
drowned all its inhabitants,— this great God, who sent 
the fire of his wrath upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
burnt them up, because of their sins, — this great God, 
who cast Pharoah and all the Egyptian army into the Red 
Sea — this great God, who thunders in the heavens, and 
can make the earth quake from pole to pole — this great 
God, children ! you ought to " fear." He is able to lift 
you up, and he is able to cast you down. He is able 
to cast all the wicked into hell, and he is able there " to 
destroy both soul and body for ever." Would you be 
afraid of a lion in your path, that could destroy you 1 
God made the ferocious lion ; and if God is " angry 
with the wicked," his anger is infinitely more terrible 
than the anger of any creature that he has made. 
Dear children ! if we fear the creatures that God has 
made, how much more ought we to be afraid of the anger 
of the great and powerful God ! " Come, ye children ! 
hearken unto me ; I will teach you the fear of the Lord." 
You ought to tear the power and the anger of the great 
God. 

2. There is another reason why you should fear him, 
and this is the second I am about to mention ; it is be- 
cause God is so holy. God is holy, dear children ! and 
he knows your hearts, he knows your thoughts, he 
knows all your words, and he hates every sin. He hates 
your sins very much. He requires you to "be holy, as 
he is holy." This holy God will punish iniquity. 
There is a day coming, when he will bring us all up 
before his judgment-seat ; and there is not a child, that 



190 SERMON VII. 

I am speaking to this afternoon, that will not have to 
stand at the judgment-seat of the great God. Children ! 
think of this holy God, who will bring you into judg- 
ment ; think of your wicked hearts, and your wicked 
lives, and all your wicked words, that God will bring 
out at that great and terrible day. You will have to 
stand there ; none of us can escape ; death and the 
grave will not hold us, for, when the archangel's trum- 
pet shall blow, we shall all come out of our graves and 
go and stand before God. We, then, who have sinned 
against him, we who have provoked him to wrath, 
ought to fear his anger. Hence it is said, that all who 
are round about him shall " fear before him." You 
must approach him with reverence, with repentance, 
and with sincerity. And then understand, dear chil- 
dren ! (as I preached this morning, and I repeat it to 
those who were not here,) that the only way to come to 
a holy God is to come through his dear Son. You 
must come through Jesus Christ. Your sins are great, 
and call for the anger of God, and, unless you approach 
him through his dear Son, Jesus Christ, you must per- 
ish. I have known some dear little children, (I have 
known many of them, for I have seen a great many 
children that I think loved God,) and I have seen them 
greatly troubled about their sins ; I have seen them so 
troubled, that for days, and sometimes for weeks, they 
could hardly sleep in quiet, for every night when they 
were going to bed the thought came to them, < Oh ! if I 
should die to-night ! Oh ! if God should take me away 
in my sins !' I used to be afraid of dying, when I was 
a boy ; and I wonder now that God did not cut me off 
then, so wicked a boy as I was ; and many of you, dear 
children ! ought to fear too, for you have been very 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 191 

wicked. I remember, that once I was playing with 
some other little boys by the side of a great river, and I 
carelessly ran over the edge of the bank and fell into 
the river ; but it was low tide ; if it had been high tide, 
I should certainly have been drowned ; suppose I had, 
then I should have gone to hell, for I was a wicked 
boy, as I fear many of you are. Oh ! what a mercy it 
was that God did not let me drown then, and did not 
let me die in my sins ! And so it is with you ; and you 
ought to be afraid of this holy God ; you ought to be 
afraid to sleep, while your sins are unpardoned and 
your hearts are unconverted, because God is so holy 
that he cannot bear to look upon sin, even in the heart 
and in the life of a child. And how are you ever going 
to dwell in the holy heaven of God, and with his holy 
angels, dear children ! unless your hearts become holy? 
You must become holy, the Spirit of Christ must make 
you holy, or you cannot dwell with God. Therefore 
you ought to be very much afraid, lest God should give 
you up to your wicked heart, and lest God should take 
away his Holy Spirit from you, and then you would 
never become holy, and never dwell in his presence. 

3. Now I am going to mention a third reason, be- 
sides God's being so ' great and so holy ; and it is, 
because God is able to do what he will with you, both 
in this life and the next. All the children that hear 
me, if they live, will grow up to be men and women. 
Children ! who can take care of you in this life ? Your 
fathers and mothers, (you whose parents God has 
spared,) — your fathers and mothers can do much for 
you ; your friends can do much for you ; but there 
is a great deal that they cannot do for you. They 
cannot make you happy; they cannot make other 



192 SERMON VII. 

people respect yon ; they cannot make you succeed 
in any thing you undertake in this world; all true 
happiness must come from God, and the respect of men 
must come because God gives it to us ; and all success 
in life must come from God ; all real good must come 
from God. Now, dear children ! God can do what he 
pleases with you. He can let you grow up wicked ; 
he can leave you to temptation, leave you to bad com- 
pany, leave you to disgrace. I have known the chil- 
dren of pious parents grow up so wicked, that the 
parents have had to turn them from their doors; I 
have known them to fall into the temptations of the 
devil and into the company of wicked boys, and to be 
led on from one sin to another, till they became so 
wicked and so hardened, that their parents could not 
bear them under their roof. It is true, as far as we 
are able to trace, that the greater part of the children 
that are trained up in Sabbath-schools, grow up re- 
spectable in this life, though I am afraid very many 
of them go down to hell, because they will not believe 
on Christ in their hearts. But, dear children ! God 
can leave you to temptation, to bad company, to dis- 
grace and sorrow; he can take away your parents, he 
can take away your friends, he can give you up to a 
hard heart, and then, after a life of wickedness, he 
can leave. you to die in despair. I have seen persons 
die in despair ; and I pray to God, that none of you, 
dear children, may live in wickedness and at last die 
in despair and without hope in God. Children ! be 
afraid of God, because he can bring sorrow, woe, 
penury, in this life, despair in your dying hours, and 
everlasting destruction in the life to come. 

"Children! hearken unto me;" you must be afraid 



• 



INSTRUCTION OP CHILDREN. 193 



of displeasing God ; you must have great reverence for 
God. When you read the Bible, you must fear God, 
because he is a great and a holy God ; when you go 
into your little room apart to pray, you must fear God ; 
when you go to the Sabbath-school you must fear 
God ; when you come into the sanctuary, where God 
is worshipped, you must fear God ; you must neither 
talk and laugh with one another, nor let light and 
trifling thoughts come into your minds, but you must 
feel that the place is holy. Come, children ! learn 
to fear God. I was delighted this afternoon, to hear 
so many children's voices joining in the solemn songs 
of Zion ; that is sweet ; but Oh ! how much sweeter 
the thought would be, if I could believe that every 
child here feared God, that every child here was hum- 
bled in the presence of God, sorrowful for having 
sinned against him, and that every child here desired, 
more than any thing else, that God would take away 
his anger and remove his displeasure from them ! 
Children ! fear God, so as to repent of sin ; fear God, 
so as to obey him ; fear God, so that when you go in 
secret, you will not dare to sin. Children, when they 
get alone, are not afraid to sin, because they are not 
afraid of God ; they are afraid to sin before their 
parents, they are afraid to say a wicked word before 
their father, because he will chastise them, but, when 
they get alone, they are not afraid of doing it. " Thou 
God seest me," every child should say — " Thou God 
seest me" in the darkness, as well as in the light ; 
" Thou God seest me" when I am alone, as well as 
when J am with my parents. When you get with 
wicked children, you should fear him ; when you 
hear them swear, when they hand you wicked in- 

17 



194 SERMON VII 






decent books or pictures, fear God, my children ! 
The boy that has the fear of God, may grow up to 
live to God's glory in this world, and to dwell with 
him in his glory in the next. I have no hope of the 
boy that has not the fear of God ; if he should do well 
in this life (as men say) he would perish for ever in 
the next. 

Now I am about to finish the sermon : but I want 
first to point you, for one or two minutes, to the cases of 
three or four individuals, that feared God in their youth. 

You recollect little Samuel. You have read his 
history. Little Samuel was in the temple night and 
day, always waiting upon God, always fearing and 
serving God. Samuel, you see, got to be one of the 
greatest prophets in Israel ; he anointed Saul, and after- 
wards David, to be king of Israel. 

You recollect the case of Joseph. When Potiphar's 
wife tempted him to sin, Joseph feared God, and refused 
to sin ; and God honored him, and saved him, and set 
him on high, and made him a blessing to his family 
and to the whole land of Egypt. 

But I want to tell you particularly of a person, ot 
whom you may not have heard so much ; all the chil- 
dren in America have heard much of him, because he 
lived there, and he was a very great and good man. I 
mean George Washington — one of the greatest men, I 
think, in some respects that has lived in modern days ; 
and I admire him, because, when he was a little boy, 
I see the reason why he was sure to become a great 
man. I will tell you two things about George Wash- 
ington, when he was a little boy, that were sure se- 
curity that he would become what he was. George 
Washington would rather die than tell a lie, he would 



INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. 195 

rather suffer any thing than violate the truth ; and one 
of the dreadful crimes of children is, that they lie, that 
they deceive, though God knows it and writes every 
lie and every deception in his book. This boy feared 
to lie: and I will give you two instances of it. 

His father had imported from Europe a beautiful 
cherry-tree, and had planted it in his garden, and 
watched it every day with great interest to see it grow. 
He had bought for his son George a hatchet to play 
with. One day George was in the garden with his 
little hatchet, and without much thought of what he 
was doing, he came to this beautiful tree, and cut the 
bark almost round in several places — for you know 
boys are fond of using edged tools in that way. His 
father, taking his walk in the garden, found, the tree 
cut in this way, and he saw it must die. He was very 
much grieved, and he saw at once who must have 
done it ; but he said nothing, till he met George ; he 
did not send for him, but waited till he met him. And 
the first time he met him, he said, a George ! some one 
has destroyed my favorite tree ; do you know who has 
done it?" The little boy, instead of blushing and 
turning away, instead of making excuses, instead of 
telling a falsehood, looked right up in his father's face, 
and said, " My father ! I have done it." Tears in- 
stantly rolled down his father's cheek ; he laid his 
right hand upon his boy's head ; said he, " George ! I 
would rather lose every tree in my garden, than that 
you should tell a lie ; I like to see the manliness of 
your heart, that you should at once confess, < I have 
done it.' " 

His mother had a little dun colt, a foal that had 
never been broken in. One morning before breakfast 



196 SERMON VII." 

several of George's companions came to see him, and 
they happened to go out together into the meadow 
where the colt was. George proposed that one of them 
should get upon the colt, and ride ; but none of them 
would venture. He was a fearless boy himself, and he 
got a bridle, (or rather a bit of rope,) fastened it to the 
horse's neck, and then mounted it. But the colt was 
so restless, and sprang about so much, that at last it 
dashed itself to the earth, burst a blood vessel, and died 
almost in a moment. The boys all went to breakfast, 
and Mrs. Washington endeavored to amuse them and 
make them happy; but she saw that they were not 
happy; she saw that there was something to make 
them sad. At last said she, "Have you seen my 
favorite colt?" All the boys blushed in confusion and 
distress. Said she — " What is the matter ? has any 
thing happened to my colt ?" Her little son George 
looked right in her face ; said he, " Mother, I have 
killed your colt ?" His mother was grieved of course ; 
but her remarks to him were very much like those, that 
his father made. 

Now I will tell you one other thing about .him, to 
show in what way I think it was evident that he would 
become a great man. He was about to go to sea as a 
midshipman ; every thing was arranged. — the vessel 
lay out opposite his father's house, the little boat had 
come on shore to take him off, — and his whole heart 
was bent on going. After his trunk had been carried 
down to the boat, he went to bid his mother farewell, 
and he saw the tear bursting from her eye. However 
she said nothing to him ; but he saw that his mother 
would be so distressed if he went, and perhaps never 
be happy again. He just turned round to the servant, 



INSTRUCTION OP CHILDREN. 197 

and said, " Go and tell them to fetch my trunk back ; 
I will not go away, to break my mother's heart." His 
mother was struck with his decision, and she said to 
him, " George ! God has promised to bless the children 
that honor their parents, and I believe he will bless 
you." And he did. 

Children ! I exhort you, for the sake of this life, to 
fear God. I exhort you so to fear him, that you will not 
live under his anger, but go to his blessed Son, and 
seek pardon through him. And then, if you and I 
meet in heaven, if you join the ranks of angels and of 
saints on high, we shall dwell in love, and " fear" God 
together. 

May God add his blessing ! May you all become 

dear holy children ; and when you die, may you be 

admitted to the world of glory, through his grace in 

Christ Jesus. 

17* 






SERMON VIIL 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 



" And the King- shall answer and say unto them, l Ve- 
rily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it 
unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me"? Then shall he say also unto them 
on the left hand, < Depart from me, ye cursed ! into 
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his an- 
gels : For I toas an hungered, and ye gave me no 
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I 
was a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, and 
ye clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye vi- 
sited me not.'' Then shall they also answer him, 
saying, l Lord ! when saw we thee an hungered, or 
athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, 
and did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he an- 
stver them, saying, l Verily I say unto you, Inas- 
much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye 
did it 7iot to me? — Matt. xxv. 40 — 45. 

Many centuries ago, a prince of mighty empire de- 
termined to travel in disguise into a strange land, for 
the purpose of accomplishing certain very benevolent 
objects. As he was one day journeying on foot through 
a rough and weary country, in the western part of Asia, 
he came to a celebrated watering-place. Being greatly 
fatigued, he sat down upon the well-curb, and waited 



200 SERMON VIII. 

for some one to come with a vessel and cord, that he 
might relieve himself from thirst. He had not sat 
there long before a woman from a neighboring city- 
came to the well. He asked her to allow him to drink 
from her pitcher. She refused, because his dialect and 
dress bespoke him a foreigner. Hearer ! suppose you 
had been there, and had suspected that it was a prince, 
would you not gladly have supplied him ? But what 
would you have done, if you had ascertained that it 
was the Son of God, the King of Heaven ? l Oh ! I 
would have cried out as that woman did — Lord ! Lord ! 
i" must turn suppliant ; I will, indeed, give thee this 
poor earthen pitcher, and supply thee with the water of 
Jacob's well ; but Oh ! do thou give me the Water of 
Life.' Believe me, my hearers ! you have the oppor- 
tunity ; he is now travelling in disguise through our 
land. Where is he? and how shall we know him? 
He is wherever human nature is suffering the ills of life ; 
wherever the body is in sickness or pain ; wherever 
the mind is in darkness or misery. Yes, it is with 
poor human nature that he has identified himself — no 
matter how poor, how abject, how despised — wherever 
human flesh is wrapped around a human soul, the more 
it suffers, the deeper it is fallen, the more tender is the 
Savior's sympathy, the more burning is his shame : and 
he that lifts up that degraded human being, takes the 
blush from Jesus' cheek ; he that gives a cup of cold 
water to a thirsty man, because he regards the Savior's 
interest in that man, quenches the thirst, and cheers the 
heart, of the Son of God. 

Do you ask the proof of this bold and strange posi- 
tion ? It is found in all the solemn description of the 
judgment, which filled this discourse of Christ himself. 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 201 

Do you shrink from that low and filthy apartment, from 
that emaciated and disgusting frame, because your 
senses are trained to refinement ? do you pass by on the 
other side from the bed of contagion ? So Jesus says, 
p I was sick, and ye did not visit me." You are mis- 
taken, friends ! that is a bed of state, and Heaven's 
prince lies there disguised by all that filth and poverty 
— all his ministering spirits are hovering around that 
spot. It is a glorious place, in which a poor sinner 
may minister to his Sovereign. Do you say that we 
have imagined an extreme case. Oh, no, " Inasmuch 
as ye have done it unto the least, ye have done it unto 
me." < Yes ; but there is another case of debasement, 
which surely contradicts your assertion.' What is it ? 
' It is that of the man who has outraged all the ties of 
society, trampled its laws under his feet, made himself 
the enemy of his race, and cast himself beyond the pale 
of sympathy ; and now lies enchained and endungeoned 
for his crimes. Surely Christ has no fellowship with 
him.' Stop, my hearers ! read the record again ; " I 
was in prison, and ye did not come unto me." When, 
Lord ! and where ? i There, in that lowest and least 
of Adam's apostate children.' But we have not finished 
the application of the principle — there is a still further 
debasement of humanity. It is a woman, who, having 
sacrificed her modesty, purity, refinement and tender- 
ness, has become an outcast from society. Does the 
Son of God regard her thus too ? Go ask the Phari- 
sees, who saw him associating with the worst of men 
and women, as their Teacher and Savior, and even re- 
ceiving, with the most condescending kindness, Mary's 
expressions of gratitude. They can testify that he loved 
the worst, and the vilest, with the same tender affection 



202 SERMON VIII. 

which he felt towards the more upright and respectable. 
He associated with them, taught them, encouraged their 
reformation, prayed, and died for them, as for others. 
Are your doubts removed now ; and can you now take 
up this proposition as truth ? Then I answer a very 
natural inquiry, Why is it so ? 

1. Because Christ's compassion for our race is so 
strong and impartial. It is so strong ; therefore, no 
man can sink below it, so long as Justice permits Mercy 
to be exercised in his behalf. It is impartial; and 
therefore it regards the Christian family as a great race 
of apostates. The grand distinction, that constitutes us 
sinners, is so much greater than that which can possi- 
bly separate owe sinner from another \ — except grace 
work in us a difference, — that to Christ's compassion it 
is nothing. He loves human nature, as such, and as 
fallen ; not as holy, nor lovely. And it is of the nature 
of sympathy to identify its possessor with its object ; 
thus it is with the mother ; her first-bcrn is as the apple 
of her eye. Thus Christ feels towards all, — for he died 
for all as dead. 

2. There is another reason. It is a better test of our 
compassion and benevolence than if we helped Christ 
in person. He desires that one principle of action in 
us shall be, good will to man. Therefore, although he 
considers all our good will and kindness to men as shown 
to himself, yet he prefers that we shall consider it in 
part as done to them, and that we shall sympathize 
with him in this pure love of human nature, which 
pursues it to the extremities of its folly, and the abysses 
of its degradation. 

3. There is a third reason. It is thus a strong test 
of our love to him personally. He is now in disguise. 



. 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 203 



you can join a party only when it is triumphant, you 
betray a want of real and strong- attachment to their 
principles ; if you can acknowledge Christ, only when 
he appears in external splendor, that he will despise. 
The test now applied to the whole human family is 
this : — will you make common cause with Christ when 
his cause is despised and persecuted 1 — will you labor, 
weep, pray, suffer, expend, or die for human nature in 
its lowest state, partly for its sake, and chiefly for his ? 

Another point is suggested by the subject and object 
of our meeting. I am addressing a community, to 
whom applications are made continually for the gift of 
their property for the benefit of other people. Now, is 
this right ? Some say, < No.' I must answer, that it is 
right ; it is blessed in those who apply ; it is merciful 
in God to afford us the opportunities of charity. It is 
blessed to us in the fulfilment of God's precious promi- 
ses to the liberal soul. 

But let us take a closer view of this point. Why 
are we not called upon to give all that we are to give, 
and then rest for a time, and prepare ourselves for 
another onset upon our sympathies and purses? I 
will tell you, my brethren, of this flourishing com- 
mercial city ! many reasons why it is not best. And 
the first is — 

1. Your prosperity would be your ruin. It would 
encrust your hearts over with selfishness. It would 
tend to degrade your Christian character. The very 
fact, that such a question is entertained, betrays a 
state of mind full of danger to a Christian. You cer- 
tainly take a very low view of God's design in giving 
you property, if you love money for its own sake ; if 
you love it for the sake of promoting your own grati- 



204 SERMON VIII. 

fications ; — if you count not yourself a steward of God's 
property, and accountable to him for it all ; — then the 
more ,you have the worse. Let me suggest another 
consideration. 

2. God is lifting- this world from sin and degradation 
by human instruments. He has himself spared no 
expense in the work, not even his own Son ; and we 
are most graciously permitted to participate in it. This 
is the proper view to take of these calls for money, 
perpetually returning. If it is not to promote some 
branch of the great enterprise which lies on the heart 
of infinite love, and taxes the resources of Heaven's 
King, then do not contribute. Benevolence is the 
law of his empire ; but what is benevolence ? — to grow 
weary of doing good — to wish to have all the good in 
one form — to do it one time, and then live in selfish- 
ness ? Away with such views, my brethren ! If they 
have occupied your minds, banish them. Let your 
benevolence to man be like the morning visits of the 
sun. It never exclaims, < What ! has this beg-ving; 
earth returned, with its swarms of begging creatures, 
taxing my treasures of light and warmth ?' Give, 
my brethren ! like the sun ; give, like him who made 
the sun, and appointed it the emblem of his perpetual 
and munificent goodness. This is, probably, the 
wealthiest city in the world. Its merchants are 
princes. They ought to be first in the princely work 
of benevolence. There is magnificence of expendi- 
ture, there ought to be munificence in charity. What 
moral sublimity would pertain to London, if we could 
look upon its mighty commerce, and believe that it 
was all consecrated to the promotion of Christ's king- 
dom, and the removal of human misery ! Your palaces 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 205 

would be more splendid, if they did not cast their daily- 
shadows on so many wretched, — most wretched crea- 
tures. It is impossible for a mind, properly humanized, 
to look at the marks of grandeur and luxury here 
accumulated, without the recollection of the contracted 
condition of thousands of your citizens. It should be 
the earnest prayer of every lover of the human species, 
that London may speedily become the model for the 
world's beneficence, the great instructor of mankind in 
the true and most proper uses of money. 

I must now explain, more specifically, the objects, 
plans, and claims of the London Female Mission. 
Woman is the object of its holy enterprise ; her con- 
dition has excited our compassion, and her welfare is 
the goal of our pursuits ; and we now solicit your 
kind attention to those views of her state which have 
enlisted our hearts in this enterprise of mercy. Chris- 
tianity has elevated her, and greatly blessed her. But 
we indulge a delusion in selecting some instances of 
female excellence, which are merely the demonstration 
of its benign power, while we overlook the myriads, 
who are yet without the sphere of its direct influence ; 
it is unfortunate that we so often rest with complacency 
in contemplating what Christianity has done, and 
may do, — when these results are but the first fruits 
of a harvest, — instead of investigating the melancholy 
condition of those, whose future elevation may yet 
add gloriously to its triumphs. We exhort, then, our 
fellow-Christians to behold the lovely and elevated 
character of the mothers and daughters in Israel, — to 
remember that the contrast between them and their 
Pagan ancestry is the efleet of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ. We exhort them to turn from these hundreds, 

18 



206 SERMON VIII. 

and behold the thousands who are untaught, unrefined, 
and unsanctified. That ignorance can give place to 
knowledge ; those hearts are capable of the highest 
degrees of refinement ; those Magdalenes can yet be- 
come the most humble and grateful worshippers at the 
Savior's feet, and sing the loudest, sweetest song in 
heaven. We propose not, in this statement, to present 
the reflection of the whole living picture of female 
degradation. If we shall succeed in directing the at- 
tention of philanthropists to the subject in any greater 
degree ; if we can induce a more earnest examination 
into the condition of this important part of the great 
social system ; then our first object is gained. We 
ask attention, then, to the present condition of the 
female sex in Christian countries, and more especially 
in this great metropolis. 

Mothers. We deem the maternal relation to be 
one of the most important in society. The human 
character, both intellectual and moral — nay, the entire 
man, physical, intellectual, moral, and social — is ex- 
quisitely flexible at a certain period of his life. This 
period is spent in closer contact with the mother than 
with any other being. Her influence is, consequently, 
the most powerful in forming the character of the 
future man. If you would trace the crimes and 
wretchedness of any one generation to their most im- 
mediate source, you would find them in the influence 
of mothers, in the power of example and precept, in 
the neglect of restraint, discipline, and cultivation. 
We believe, from our observation, and from the testi- 
mony of God, that the human heart is depraved ; that 
it is utterly deranged. But we also believe, that the 
means of its recovery are granted to man. At the 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 207 

most important period of his life, however, he is igno- 
rant of his condition, and of the means of his improve- 
ment. He has no conception of the nature of his own 
being. Another must realize it for him ; he has no 
estimate of the mighty issues that are suspended upon 
the dispositions which he indulges, and the objects he 
pursues. Another must see all this for him ; and, 
if he did feel it, he knows not by what means his 
character can be rightly formed. All this another must 
know for him. Now, what aiFects us in the matter is, 
that there are thousands who have the name, and oc- 
cupy the station, of mothers, to whom this difficult 
and important trust is committed, but who are utterly 
unqualified for it. They may not be deficient in 
natural affection, and in the qualifications that regard 
the lower wants of humanity ; but it is no exaggeration 
to say, that for all the higher purposes of training the 
human mind they are utterly unqualified. We find 
widely spread the fatal defects in mothers. They are 
insensible to the solemn nature and responsibilities of 
the maternal relation, exceedingly ignorant of the du- 
ties connected with that relation, and yet more ignorant 
of the mode of discharging them. Another object of 
our attention is, 

The Young Female. There is a large number of 
our sex, who regard females of a certain class in no 
other light than as the instruments of gratifying their 
basest desires. The basilisk eyes of lust are fixed 
on female innocence and purity, all unguarded as it 
is by experience, and unsuspicious of the first steps 
of seduction. And no sacrifice of veracity and honor, 
of time, expense, and effort, is considered too costly to 
secure the victim. The domestic arrangements of the 



208 SERMON VIII. 

metropolis require annually thousands of young fe- 
males to forsake their friends, their parents, and their 
accustomed moral restraints ; and we are quite con- 
fident that hundreds of them come up, like a great 
holocaust, to be offered on the polluted shrines of lust ! 
Not more truly horrible, nor so fatal, is the march of 
the deluded worshippers to Juggernaut's festivals. 
These facts have arrested our attention. And we be- 
lieve the Church will yet feel, that something must be 
done to guard the innocent and unsuspecting, and to 
stay the work of death. 

But we find something still more terrific ; — there is a 
system and organization. Seduction has become a 
trade, conducted with regularity, and with business- 
tact. Hundreds of trained and veteran pimps are now in 
the field. They circulate through the country, they are 
in the high places, and in the humble sections of the me- 
tropolis. Their hearts are like steel, and their con- 
sciences like the covering of Leviathan. Their plots 
are devised and their schemes laid with the skill of 
long experience. Stimulated by the love of money, 
reckless of the interests that are to be sacrificed at 
every successful issue of their hellish plots, — nay, 
proud of that success— they are now at work. Yea, 
while we are now deliberating, some infernal hand is 
spreading the toils. The victim is almost sure to fall. 
But who is it ? Oh ! it is the daughter of a pious 
widow, whom poverty compels to send away her last 
earthly comfort. It is a link in the sweet circle of an 
affectionate family. But the hour of their chastisement 
has come. Their peace, their honor, their hearts, are 
to feel the lightning's shock ; the blast of death strikes 
one of their loveliest plants. 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 209 

Fellow-Christians ! we can stand by and behold this 
no longer; something must be done for these two 
classes of females — the criminal, and the exposed. And 
the first thing, we believe, is to secure the attention of 
Christians to the actual condition of society in Chris- 
tian countries, and particularly in our large cities. It 
is impossible to direct the energies of philanthropy to 
any object, until the relative importance of that object 
is felt. The evil to be removed must be contemplated 
in the detail and in the mass, and we must expect to 
find at first much incredulity on the subject. Thus it 
was with respect to the destitution of Bibles, and the 
extent of intemperance in America. When the first 
investigations were made, the results were incredible to 
those, who had become acquainted merely with some 
isolated case, and rested in vague conjectures concern- 
ing the actual extent of these evils. The results of 
examination were indeed appalling ; and, at first, the 
statement of them was received with great incredulity; 
we are not, therefore, surprised to find that, when the 
first investigations were made in New- York on the sub- 
ject of female prostitution, the publication created quite 
a commotion. The political journals took up the sub- 
ject with violence to defend the reputation of the city, 
and to repel the " base aspersions." An exposure was 
made of the capital embarked in furnishing and rent- 
ing of houses in the most sumptuous style, of the 
number of houses inhabited by abandoned females, of 
the number of married men who patronized them, of 
the number of annual seductions, and of the untimely 
deaths, and (which baffles the powers of numbers) the 
anguish and despair of these victims of criminal 
passion. The statements were denied and ridiculed 

18* 



210 SERMON VIII. 

by the wicked, and doubted by the good. Nor have 
we any means now of establishing their correctness, 
except the character and ability of the persons em- 
ployed in gaining the information, together with the 
analogous results in other branches of benevolent 
operation. We are, accordingly, not surprised to find 
the statistics of prostitution in London the subject of 
controversy, nor shall Ave be surprised to find the num- 
bers already given rather below than beyond the 
reality. 

It is time for the philanthropic portions of the com- 
munity to direct their sympathetic attention toward 
those two classes of young females— the criminal and 
the exposed. It seems to be the glory of our age, that 
no branch of human misery and depravity — however 
tortuous its windings, however obscure its sources — 
shall be left unexplored. Organization, union, effort, 
for reaching degraded humanity, however situated — 
for removing its burdens, for lifting it to the enjoyment 
of the blessings of redemption — is the grand principle 
of the Church. And God grant that it may never be 
abandoned until Satan has abandoned his throne on 
earth ; but that there may be more union, more wis- 
dom, humility, zeal, and energy. We are quite con- 
fident then that this form of human degradation and 
misery will not be overlooked. The evil is too great 
to be any longer disregarded. While the cry of the 
heathen, of the drunkard and his family, of the orphan, 
of the prisoner, of the ignorant, is coming up to the 
ears of Christian sympathy, Oh ! let. a place be found 
in this miserable group for the immortals, who seem 
to be, by their circumstances, shut out from the light 
of the Gospel almost as effectually as the heathen. 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 211 

JNay, if we were not moved by compassion for the 
wretched victims of the great destroyer, there are con- 
siderations sufficient, connected with our own welfare, 
to secure our earnest attention to this subject. If we 
regard not their anguish — their bitter recollection of 
days of innocence — their shame and remorse — their 
awful forebodings ; — if the numbers who are drinking 
these bitter waters, — if the tender age of many of them, 
— the former loveliness of others — do not effect us ; or, 
rather, if our consciences will permit us to pass by 
on the other side, and say, " Be ye reclaimed, be ye 
saved" — let us, at least, consider their influence on that 
society, of which we form a part, and in whose welfare 
we have so deep an interest. These miserable beings 
become, in their turns, the corrupters of others. All 
the power of female fascination is enlisted against so- 
ciety — many of them, in fact, turn upon our sex with 
a spirit of desperate revenge. Such was declared, in 
court, to have been the feeling and purpose of an un- 
fortunate girl who was murdered in New- York last 
winter. Let us, then, recollect that our sons, our 
brothers — the young men of promise in our land — are 
not proof against the influence of those whose subtlety 
and skill has been so graphically noticed by Solomon : 
and let us remember, that these houses, in the midst of 
our dwellings, are "the chambers of death and the 
gates to hell" — that our strong ones are enticed thither, 
where they are lost to society, and often to heaven. 

But, while we have thus dwelt at some length upon 
one department of our labors, perhaps we may have 
conveyed the impression, that that is the most import- 
ant department in our estimation. But this is not the 
case. All the children of the poor are embraced in our 



212 SERMON VIII. 

plans. We aim to secure the formation of their char- 
acter at home — to make that sacred place (as God in- 
tended it should be) the school in which man shall 
learn his most valuable lessons. We aim, in a word, 
to make the great social system more perfect, — as 
Christianity is designed ultimately to make it, — by 
establishing a more perfect harmony between the mem- 
bers of the body ; the one that has abundant honor and 
comfort having some line of communication, by which 
it may learn the wants and sufferings of the other, and 
thus sympathizing with it and imparting to it. This 
practical benevolence is just what God has so fully en- 
joined upon us in the Old Testament, and more im- 
pressively commended and commanded in the New. 
The Church is looking and praying for the great day 
of Millennial light and glory ; but she looks for it in 
vain without that action which God has enjoined upon 
her. And that work is to be done in the detail. We 
raise large sums of money, and send abroad our mis- 
sionaries in companies of five and ten, but those mis- 
sioneries must at last come down to minute and specific 
labor, or they accomplish nothing. So must we here. 
And are objects around us too abundant? We pro- 
pose, as the end of our labors, to diminish the tempt- 
ations to profligacy in the case of both sexes ; to de- 
fend the innocent and unsuspecting; to expose the 
snares of the destroyers ; to spread the knowledge of 
the gospel among those who will not come to its reg- 
ular ministrations; to diminish the amount of public 
crime and mendicity, and to advance the general in- 
formation of human minds. In a word, we hope to be 
the honored, though unworthy, instruments, in God's 
hands, of banishing much actual misery, of preventing 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 213 

still more, and of pointing, successfully, many a perish- 
ing soul to the Lamb of God. Yes ; we indulge the 
hope of meeting, when the toils of life are ended ; 
many, very many, whom God will give us as the seals 
of our labors, rejoicing in his immortal glory. We 
aspire even to the issue of seeing immortal spirits res- 
cued from ruin, and obtaining the bliss of heaven for 
others, and the rewards of grace for ourselves. For 
we believe that the hand of the Lord is in this enter- 
prise. 

Brethren ! the Church has too long rested in a gene- 
ral acknowledgment of this enormous evil ; she has too 
long doubted the mercy and the promises of God. We 
must no longer stand by and see Satan's ravages ; be- 
hold all the wreck of the dearest human interests, and 
yet do nothing. If there is malice towards man in hell, 
there must be love on earth ; if there is activity there, 
then there must be energy here. Nay ; if human agents 
are doing the work of darkness, then human agents 
must oppose them with the weapons of light. If there 
is organization here for destruction, then we must meet 
it with organization for defence and deliverance. Our 
work is improvement, prevention, cure. All are feasi- 
ble with God's approbation and blessing. Having given 
this general exposition of the objects of the Society, 
you will allow me to state the several branches of its 
operation. 

I. The Instruction of Mothers. To effect this a ma- 
tron is selected, of the requisite qualifications for gain- 
ing easy access to families, for adapting herself to their 
circumstances, and for instructing and counselling. It 
will be her object, first, to find a sufficient number of 
mothers who are willing to receive instruction, and to 



214 SERMON VIII. 

form them into sections for the sake of convenience, 
then to enlist some benevolent and experienced person, 
of her own sex, to take the particular charge of a sec- 
tion. After forming several such sections, she will 
make a uniform system for the whole, so far as is ne- 
cessary, and superintend and direct the whole enterprise 
of these maternal meetings. In these meetings the ob- 
ligations, the duties, and the encouragements of mothers, 
will be explained and enforced. Children will then be 
made the subjects of special prayer ; but more of the 
details of the plan will be communicated by the Com- 
mittee, than we can properly introduce here. One sub- 
ject, however, of especial importance we may add in 
this connection. Poor and ignorant mothers must be 
taught the nature and extent of their children's danger. 
There must be excited in them a more lively abhor- 
rence of the first step towards ruin, and they must be 
made acquainted with the snares of the wicked. They 
must teach and warn their daughters. They have a 
peculiar commission from God to do it, and the dis- 
charge of that trust must be urged upon them. 

II. Young Females. We propose to begin with the 
most ignorant, to aim at improving their mental con- 
dition, guarding them from dangers, and to labor for 
their eternal salvation. 

III. Young Children. We do not wish to interfere 
with the systems of public charitable instruction ; but 
there is a wide field of usefulness left unoccupied, after 
they have done all that they undertake. If other In- 
stitutions are accomplishing all that is necessary, we 
shall then be able to direct our energies to the other de- 
partments ; but we are sure that, after all which has 
been done to secure the religious education of poor chil- 



PRACTICAL LOVE TO CHRIST. 215 

dren, the field is yet white, very wide, and inviting a 
multitude of laborers. 

IY. Females of Bad Character. Where prevention 
comes too late, we attempt a cure. There are hundreds 
of these wretched beings who can yet be persuaded to 
return to the paths of virtue. The society has employed 
another matron, devoted entirely to this department. 
Her duty is to visit them ; to converse with them ; to 
distribute such tracts as are adapted to excite their fears, 
and to encourage them to abandon their destructive 
ways. Besides those, it has become evident that there 
are numbers who need no exhortation ; they want di- 
rection. They are as weary as galley slaves of their 
horrible bondage, but their circumstances chain them. 
They know not how to change, nor where to go. They 
would fain return to their friends, but the door is closed 
against them there. They would return to society, but 
society despises them. There is, then, a most import- 
ant part for Christian kindness to act. We may inter- 
cede delicately with friends, and we may have, in 
future, the same cheering success which has crowned 
our past efforts. The hearts of anxious parents have 
been relieved, their prayers answered, the dead has 
been brought to life, the lost has been found. This 
should be the great object of solicitude — to have them 
restored to the friendship and guardianship of their own 
kindred. But, where this is impracticable, — as, in too 
many cases, they have no friend, no parent, no home, — 
we must resort to the established method of forming 
asylums, with but one important modification, — the re- 
striction of the size of each asylum, — not allowing 
more than twenty or thirty to live together. 

Such are the objects of this Society, and such its pro- 



216 SERMON VIII. 

posed plan of usefulness. Its limited means have ne- 
cessarily limited its action. But every stage of its infant 
history is marked with the encouraging impress of Di- 
vine goodness. We solicit the aid of the Church of 
God, of the friends of mankind, of all who desire the 
welfare of their fellow creatures. Surely the Savior 
meant to embrace these very classes in his memorable 
description of the judgment. Surely he will recognise 
our efforts in this behalf, when we make them with 
reference to his glory. 



SERMON IX. 



THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION CONNECTED WITH 
THE PROGRESS OF RELIGION. 



" The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, i Pre- 
pare ye the toay of the Lord, make straight in the 
desert a highway for our God /' Every valley shall 
be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be 
made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, 
and the rough places plain, and the glory of the 
Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it 
together ; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken 
it"— Isaiah xl. 3—5. 

It has been announced, that the subject of discourse, 
this evening, would be the connection between the 
Temperance-reformation and the revival of Religion. 
I venture to expand the idea a little beyond the notice, 
and say, that it is the connection between the Tem- 
perance-reformation and the Millennium. 

Isaiah, in the striking and beautiful passage which 
has been quoted, spoke of John the Baptist. Our au- 
thority for this assertion is the direct declaration of the 
Spirit of God ; the record is contained in Matthew, the 
third chapter, the first three verses — "In those days 

19 



218 SERMON IX. 

came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness 
of Judea, and saying, l Repent ye, for the kingdom of 
heaven is at hand.' For this is he, that was spoken 
of by the prophet Esaias, saying, l The voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the 
Lord, make his paths straight.' " He spoke of this 
eminent man, under the figure of the herald that was 
accustomed to precede the great monarchs of the East, 
when passing through the desert — as in the celebrated 
journey of the queen Semiramis, when a road was 
made through the vast deserts of Western Asia ; the 
mountains were levelled, and the valleys were exalted, 
and the roads too circuitous were made more direct, 
and the rough places were reduced to smoothness, that 
the sovereign might pass with ease, and in suitable 
pomp and dignity. Under this beautiful imagery, de- 
signing alone the moral movement of the Messiah, and 
the moral preparation for his advent, and his reception 
in the hearts of men, — under this beautiful imagery is 
described the coming of the Son of God to reign, not 
in temporal power, not over man in his political rela- 
tions and interests, but over man in his moral relations, 
man in his affections, man in his moral, spiritual and 
eternal interests. 

There is something peculiarly striking in comparing 
this figurative language with the early preaching of 
the herald of our Redeemer. " Prepare ye the way ;" 
the Messiah is to come like one of those oriental 
monarchs in their visits to Palestine or to Egypt, — is 
to come over a vast desert, — and, when he comes, he 
will find mountains and valleys and crooked places 
and rough places impeding his march ; all ye people ! 
attend; your Sovereign is about to descend from 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 219 

heaven, and march athwart this wilderness, and come 
to bring redemption to his people; "Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- 
way for onr God ; every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the 
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 
plain ;' and when this preparatory work is accom- 
plished, " the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and 
all flesh shall see it together." Now turn to the preach- 
ing of John the Baptist. " In those days came John 
the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and 
saying, Repent." In the fore-front of his mission — the 
first word of his sermon to a guilty world — is, " Re- 
pent." And what is the meaning of repentance? A 
change of mi ad. About what 1 About your life, about 
your maxims and principles of action, about the objects 
of your heart's affection, about your pursuits, about 
your personal character and your personal conduct, 
about your business, your traffic, your social inter- 
course, — every thing that pertains to your life : go 
home, and, under the solemn inspection of the eye of 
God, read your heart, and read your life, and bring 
your business beneath the light of his holy law, and 
see whether they will stand the presence of the Son 
of man, who is coming to emancipate the human soul ; 
" repent — repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand." And then, whatever individual man, or what- 
ever particular class of men presented themselves to 
the Baptist, he directly " laid the axe at the root of" 
their sin, and called upon them not to plead the cus- 
toms of society, not to plead their belief that they had 
been right, not to plead the fact that their fathers had 
done so before them, but to change their minds and 



220 SERMON IX. 

change their practices, and thus prepare for the coming 
of their King. " Repent ! repent !" — he called upon 
them to " repent," to humble themselves, to "deny them- 
selves, to reform themselves, and thus prepare for the 
blessings of the new dispensation. 

There is something very remarkable in the prophe- 
cies of the Old Testament. We learn the general 
principle to which I refer, from the practice of the 
New Testament writers themselves ; it is, that almost 
all the great prophecies in the Old Testament have 
more than a single meaning, and refer to more than 
one event. And it is evident, that this coming of the 
Son of God referred not merely to his coming in the 
flesh, not merely to the first outpouring of his Spirit, 
but to those great and glorious things predicted in 
other parts of the prophecies concerning days that are 
yet to come, and that either we, or our posterity, (per- 
haps not very far distant,) are yet to see. Who can 
doubt it, with this Bible in his hand, that there is to be 
a vast moral renovation ? who can doubt it, that the 
arm of tyranny is to be broken ? who can doubt it, that 
every chain of slavery is to cease to clank upon the 
creature made in the image of his God? who can 
doubt it, that the Savior and Deliverer of mankind 
will make this world the theatre of his triumphs, and 
here, where Satan had reigned, the Messiah will set 
up his throne and gather his laurels and triumph over 
his enemies? 

But if that day is to come, when " the earth shall 
be filled with the knowledge of the Lord," when " Holi- 
ness to the Lord" shall be written " upon the bells of 
the horses" and the vessels of our culinary establish- 
ments, evidently there must be vast changes. Whether 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 221 

it is this generation, whether it is your children, whether 
it is the generation after that or not, whoever it be, 
they will be a " repenting" generation. They will 
not plead custom, they will not plead that their fathers 
did so, and that good men do so still ; there will be 
vast changes of views, and vast changes of feeling, 
and vast changes of practice ; and there will be the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, " Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- 
way for our God." 

My object, this evening, is to describe one of the 
mightiest obstructions to the influence of the gospel 
and the Spirit of God in this world. My object, this 
evening, is to describe one of the master-machinations 
of the prince of darkness and the enemy of man. My 
object, this night, is to describe one of the most fertile 
sources of the temporal wretchedness and immortal 
ruin of man, that Satan has let loose on this sin-pol- 
luted and cursed world. My object, to-night, is to 
show you that which must get out of the way, that 
that the Messiah may come and reign in peace, in 
purity, in righteousness and mercy, over this wretched 
earth. 

With the Jews, it was not drunkenness, but religious 
error ; it was pride of heart, it was superstitious attach- 
ment to forms and ceremonies, to which the Baptist 
alluded. With us, it is worldliness of heart, formality 
in religion, unbelief of the declarations and promises of 
God, and prayerlessness in the Church. These are our 
heart-sins, which must be repented of, that Christ may 
come in greater power and greater glory to reign in the 
Church, and that 'salvation may come out of Zion" to 
reign in the world. But these are heart-sins ; there is, 

19* 



222 SERMON IX. 

besides these, a lofty and rugged mountain which must 
be levelled. The habit of drinking intoxicating liquors, 
and, of course, with it, the entire system and machinery 
of making and vending them, is one of the grand im- 
pediments to the coming of the Messiah. 

I lay down three propositions to be established in the 
course of my remarks.* 

I. The first is this; — The habit of using intoxica- 
ting liquors as a beverage is one grand obstacle to the 
revival of pure religion and the coming of the expected 
Millennium. 

I enter first on explanation. 

I speak of these substances as beverages — as common 
drinks taken by men in health, not by sick men. I 
interfere not with the province of the physician ; I must 
say, that we have a point to debate with them ; but now 
I interfere not with them, nor with their prescriptions. 
I speak of these substances taken as beverages by men 
in health, for the avowed purpose of their stimulating 
effect— for personal gratification — under the plea of 
nourishment — and for the sake of social, convivial en- 
joyment. The idea of taking every day a medicine is 
too preposterous to be argued against. We are speak- 
ing of them now simply as drinks, as beverages taken 
by men in health. 

I include them all — the whole range of ardent spirit 
and of fermented liquors, wine and beer and cider, with 
all that is called ardent spirit; — 1 include them all. 
Their identity is established, in every way that the 
subject admits. No man doubts, that the use of ardent 
spirit is in the way way of the progress of the gospel of 
Jesus Christ ; but a distinction has been made, and it is 
against that distinction I now direct my attack. If 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 223 

truth is with me, believe me ; if not, let it pass, as the 
opinion of an individual, or of many individuals, not 
established by argument. 

I repeat it, that under this proposition I include all 
that can intoxicate, used as a beverage. My proposi- 
tion is that no man has a right to use intoxicating be- 
verages ; he may have a right to use intoxicating medi- 
cines, but not to drink them for his pleasure, and under 
the absurd notion of nourishment and for the purposes 
of convivial enjoyment. 

The identity of all these substances, I remark, is 
established in every way that the subject admits. We 
go first to the chemist. We ask him, what is the in- 
toxicating principle in ardent spirits ? He goes into a 
minute analysis ; he separates that from them which 
intoxicates, and which alone intoxicates ; he says it is 
alcohol — a substance discovered in the ninth century ; 
he says it is alcohol, modified as it may be. We go to 
the physiologist, and we ask him what he thinks of its 
effects upon the constitution of man ? He says, that, 
when it goes into the human system, it may go in con- 
nection with sugar, with wine, with various coloring 
matters, with many other substances, and that all that 
goes in with it undergoes the healthful natural process 
of digestion, but that alcohol works its way pure and 
separate out of the stomach into the blood-vessels, and 
from the blood-vessels into other vessels, burning and 
scorching its way along the whole line of life, until the 
laboring struggling system throws it out at some one 
of its great operations. ' This is alcohol,' says the phy- 
siologist. We turn back to the chemist ; we ask him, 
' Is there any difference between alcohol in ardent 
spirits, and alcohol in wine or beer or cider V He says, 



224 SERMON IX. 

' No/ ' Why ? where is your proof?' Mr. Brande says — 
" I have tried whether it is the heat in distillation that 
makes the alcohol, and I have proved that it is not ; 
for I got alcohol out of wine without subjecting it to 
the heat of distillation : I got alcohol out of beer and 
out of cider, not by heat ; and I find that alcohol is the 
result of the second process of certain decaying vegeta- 
ble and animal substances rushing to putrefaction ;" 
and if man would let them go, and not stay them by 
any process, in a little while the substance would be a 
mass of putrefaction ; but man has learned to stop it, 
and apply it to purposes, for which the God of nature 
never meant it to be applied. When a man finds, that, 
by laying fire upon the skin, the skin is burned, although 
fire is a creature of God, he gathers from the fact a great 
law — that God intended that he should not put fire 
upon his skin ; and when a man finds, that, if he puts 
alcohol into his stomach, it burns the stomach, and 
burns the brain, and burns the soul, he gets at a great 
law of God — that he should not put alcohol into his 
stomach. It is one of the most absurd arguments — 
' that it is a " good" creature of God.' 

I wish to nail the great principles of this argument 
firmly on your judgment and conscience ; but I have 
not time to dwell upon them. So much, therefore, for 
the examination by the chemist and the physiologist. 
The question about alcohol in the abstract is of little 
avail to us ; we do not want to know what it is, where 
it is, or where it is not found ; but when we find it thus 
affecting the delicate frame of man, and (above all) 
rising up into the brain, and going into the soul, and 
blighting and desolating its energies and paralyzing its 
sweetest affections, then it becomes appropriate to intro- 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 225 

duce the discussion of it into the solemn debates, the 
solemn instructions, the solemn exhortations of the 
pulpit. 

We have already said, that all these substances have 
the same effect. Man can be made drunk on ardent 
spirit, on wine, on beer, on cider. Therefore they are 
all intoxicating substances. And, in fine, as I have re- 
marked, the intoxicating principle in each is the same 
thing ; the only difference is in the degree and amount 
of intoxicating substance contained in each. We find 
that this dreadful substance, when introduced into the 
human frame, remains undigested ; we find it coursing 
through the system, to paralyze its energies, to pollute 
the heart, to destroy the conscience, to ripen for crime, 
to enervate every noble faculty, to repress every aspira- 
tion of the soul after happiness, holiness, and immortal 
glory. We say, that this is the tendency of all these 
substances — of all ; we say, that the characteristics of 
alcohol are unique in all, and we challenge the denial 
of it. The difference in effect is a difference of degree, 
not of kind. When Noah took the fermented juice of 
the grape and became drunk, he was as really drunk 
as the beer-drinker and the gin-drinker in your streets. 
When Lot drank the fermented juice of the grape, he 
became drunk and committed incest, as men now be- 
come drunk on gin, brandy and rum, and commit in- 
cest. It is the same thing, and it is absurd to draw a 
line of distinction. When Alexander the Great became 
drunk and killed his friend, and when he became drunk 
and died, a sot, and a beast, it was on wine ; and it is 
just as bad to get drunk, and 'murder drunk, and die 
drunk, on wine, as it is on beer and spirit. When 
Korah, Dathan and Abiram, got drunk on intoxicating 



226 SERMON IX* 

fluid, they put the unhallowed hand to the altar of God 
and perished in their sins ; and God made from it a 
law, that the priests, when they went to minister at his 
altar, should never pollute themselves with it. The 
voice sounds from all Asia — 'It is alcohol, that is 
making all the natives drunk/ It is alcohol in Europe, 
it is alcohol in Africa, it is alcohol in America, it is al- 
cohol in the islands of the sea — alcohol ! alcohol ! the 
minister of hell, that has come to blight and curse this 
lovely earth, and this already-oppressed family of man. 
It is against alcohol, not in place r not as a chemical 
substance, not as God means it shall be used, (for he 
has a purpose in it,) but alcohol as a beverage, alcohol 
handed round the table, alcohol drunk to promote 
health, alcohol drunk to promote the flow of social 
feeling — against that we point our admonition, against 
that we lift our remonstrance, and that we say must 
get out of the way, — this " mountain" must come down ? 
that Messiah may come and reign. 

I have now simply explained myself on this propo- 
sition. I offer a few remarks to prove it more directly. 
I repeat the proposition ; — The habit of using intoxi- 
cating liquors as a beverage is one great obstacle to the 
revival of pure religion and the coming of the expected 
Millennium. 

I begin on the very lowest ground of proof — that, if 
they do not hurt, they do no good. It is a waste of the 
money, that ought to buy Bibles for the heathen and 
bread for the poor. They are of no use. I am as 
happy in drinking cold water, as the wine-drinker in 
drinking wine. I have tried both sides, and I would 
not exchange feelings with him. He has abandoned 
the cold water, that was the drink of our first father, 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 227 

(for there was neither brewery nor distillery in Eden,) 
and he has got now into the sparkling circle, where 
the gaiety is delusive ; but if he would only come back 
to that which was the drink of Adam in Paradise, he 
would find, that God had made cold water as the bev- 
erage of man, and that cold water was most consistent 
with physical health, with intellectual energy, with 
moral purity, with domestic affection, with religious 
sensibility. These beverages are all useless. 

Then they are worse. I will not stand, this night, 
to say how much a man must drink in order to be 
drunk. I wish to be most distinctly understood in my 
statements on this subject ; I say, that the tendency of 
one drop is just as much as a drop can do ; and when 
you put two drops, into the system, it is twice as much : 
and when four drops, it is four times as much ; and 
when five drops, it is five times as much ; and I know 
not the line where you begin to see the effects. I 
speak of the tendency of these drinks ; it is on the 
tendency that I fasten my argument ; the tendency of 
them always is to produce the demoralizing effects, 
that you witness on a broader scale when they are 
taken in larger quantities. And here I state the fact, 
w"hich first convinced my own mind. When I first 
heard Dr. Hewitt deliver a lecture, on ardent spirit 
alone, it seemed to me the most ridiculous thing I ever 
heard of, and therefore I am prepared to expect that 
others may think it very absurd to-night j it seemed to 
me the most Quixotic undertaking T had ever heard 
of, and a feeling of independence arose in my mind, and 
I said — « What ! is this man coming to take my brandy 
and water from me ? 1 will never give it up." It was 
a resolution formed hastily and ignorantly. Blessed 



228 SERMON IX. 

be God for the firmness and wisdom to overcome that 
wicked resolution ! The light has broken in upon my 
mind slowly, and I am therefore prepared to expect 
that many may think me ridiculous now ; but my 
mission, to-night, is, as a man, to speak the truth with- 
out hesitation, — not to dogmatize, but to leave every 
one to answer in this matter before his conscience and 
before his God. You will excuse me if I speak 
strongly, for I feel strongly ; you will excuse me, if I 
speak firmly, for I think I see the truth like a sun- 
beam. Now the first thing, which convinced me that 
1 must come out from the moderate system, to that 
which has been familiarly denominated the tee-total 
system, was this — that in the United States of America, 
there is no security whatever, (buy your wine where 
you will.) that you are not drinking ardent spirits dis- 
guised. And I venture to say, the probabilities are 
three or four to one even in Great Britain, that your 
wines are composed of rum, or gin, or brandy, of the 
worst kind. The man that sits down with his friend. 
to quaff the substance which he calls wine, may have 
to say what I heard a minister say the day before yes- 
terday—" Oh ! this is very vile stuff." Yes, so it may 
be ; and so it is ; we have analyzed champaign in our 
country, and we have found it sugar of lead diluted 
and disguised. Think of a man sitting down with his 
friend to quaff sugar of lead — one of the most poison- 
ous substances ! I say, that the tendency of the 
whole family of them is destructive and injurious, al- 
though one may so limit himself as not to reach the 
degree perceptible to his own mind. 

And I affirm further, that their moderate use forms, 
in every case of immoderate use, the first stage. I had 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 229 

last evening, to introduce an illustration of 
this on the platform ; I simply now state the abstract 
principle. No man ever becomes a drunkard, but by 
beginning to drink moderately; and as long as the 
world continues to drink moderately, the world will be 
full of drunkards ; and until the world ceases to drink 
moderately, the world will not be delivered from the 
evils that flow from intemperance. The moderate use 
of these substances will perpetuate the immoderate. 

I refer now, further to establish my proposition, to 
the testimony of the Scriptures — the testimony of the 
Bible with regard to the effect of intoxicating sub- 
stances on man as a moral and religious being. I will 
not now go over the large class of texts, that do most 
distinctly reprobate " wine" and « strong drink" in the 
Bible ; I shall come to them in the course of my argu- 
ment. I speak at present of the examples it sets before 
us ; as in the case of Lot, where his incest, his awful 
and abominable crime with his own daughters, is 
traced directly up to the use of wine. And it is strange, 
that the first thing that the Bible tells us about wine ? 
the first picture of it, that is painted upon its canvass, 
is drunken Noah ; and the next is drunken Lot ; as if 
it would tell the world — " There is the beginning of 
the dreadful chapter of drinking !" The Bible says, 
that " whoredom and wine take away the heart;" it 
pute it with whoredom. « Take away the heart !" 
That which " takes away the heart" is a hindrance to 
the revival of religion* and the introduction of the Mil- 
lennium. 

Take the testimony of judges ; take \he testimony 
of jailors, who have had close intercourse with pris- 
oners and examined their history. They tell us, that, 

20 



230 SERMON IX. 

every where, three-fourths of the crimes committed are 
traced back to the use of these substances, — perverting, 
blinding, benumbing the conscience, — hindering that 
sensibility from its exercise which inclines man to 
good, and strengthening that sensibility in its exercise 
which inclines man to evil. 

So much for my first proposition. The habit of 
using intoxicating liquors as a beverage is one grand 
obstacle to the revival of pure religion and the coming 
of the expected Millennium. 

II. My second proposition is — That the total cessa- 
tion from the said use is in accordance with the Bible. 
No man need be afraid of going against the Bible by 
giving up the use of these beverages. 

1. In the first place, total abstinence is recommended 
by Scripture principles. When the apostle says, " It 
is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any 
thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or 
is made weak :" "If meat make my brother to offend, I 
will eat no flesh while the world standeth ;" he simply 
brings forward this great principle. Even if it were 
true that our Savior made intoxicating drinks, even if 
it were true that he used them, or that he gave them to 
others, — yet, in the face of that, Paul says there may 
come a state of things, in which it would be my duty to 
give up wine, and I woidd do it then ; if wine " make 
my brother to offend," I will give it up, I will abandon 
it. This is the great principle of benevolence. And I 
ask, if we have not come into those circumstances 
now, when, with the fabricated wine of our modern 
communities, we can get nothing but ardent spirits 
diluted and disguised, and when we eannot get the 
beer-bottle and the gin-bottle out of the hand of the 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 231 

poor drunkard, unless we will sweep away all these 
substances together ; — I ask, whether we have not come 
to that very juncture in human affairs, when the apos- 
tle Paul would say, " I will give up these beverages, I 
will sign the Temperance-pledge, and I will give the 
poor drunkard the force of my example, that he may 
follow me and may get away from the source of his 
wretchedness." 

If all men would act upon these principles, the 
world would get rid of drunkenness at once. If any 
one stands up on a temperance platform to descant 
on the evils of intoxicating liquors, and, in order to 
quench his own thirst, lifts the wine glass to his lips, 
I apprehend that his own conscience will condemn 
him, and the common sense of the world will hiss him 
from the stage. There is something in man that ad- 
mires consistency ; and it is impossible for a man, who 
avows himself a drinker of intoxicating liquors on a 
moderate scale, to make any effectual appeal to those 
that are getting drunk upon ardent spirits. 

2. I take the Scripture examples, that show it is in 
accordance with Scripture totally to abstain. I take 
the example of the Nazarites, that were to be a pecu- 
liarly pure and select and favored class of men ; and 
one of the indispensable injunctions to them was, that 
they should never touch strong drink ; — of that Sam- 
son, who was to be the strongest man in Israel, and, 
therefore, was not to be a drinker of intoxicating li- 
quors. I take the case of Daniel and his companions ; 
and I dwell upon it with much interest in this view. 
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, ordered that 
certain men should be brought before him, " children 
in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skilful 



232 SERMON IX. 

in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and under- 
standing science, and such as had ability in them to 
stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach 
the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans." These 
were to be selected from the children of Israel then in 
captivity ; and the king in his kindness, and according 
to the light he possessed, « appointed them a daily 
provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which 
he drank : so nourishing them three years, that at the 
end thereof they might stand before the king. Now 
among these were, of the children of Judah, Daniel, 
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; unto whom the 
prince of the eunuchs gave names ; for he gave unto 
Daniel the name of Belteshazzar ; and to Hananiah, of 
Shadrach ; and to Mishael, of Meshach ; and to Aza- 
riah, of Abed-nego. But Daniel purposed in his heart 
that he would not defile himself with the portion 
of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank ; 
therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs 
that he might not defile himself. Now God had 
brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the 
prince of the eunuchs ; and the prince of the eunuchs 
said unto Daniel,—' I fear my lord the king, who hath 
appointed your meat and your drink ; for why should 
he see your faces worse liking than the children which 
are of your sort ? then shall ye make me endanger my 
head to the king ;' " — he was one of those believers in 
the nutritious and healthful effects of wine : — " Then 
said Daniel toMelzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs 
had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria, — 
' Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days ; and let 
them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink ; — 
(" water" said this wise man, « water to drink,)"— then 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 233 

let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and 
the countenance of the children that eat of the portion 
of the king's meat : and as thou seest, deal with thy 
servants/' So he consented to them in this matter, and 
proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days 
their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh, 
than all the children which did eat the portion of the 
king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion 
of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; 
and gave them pulse. As for these four children, 
God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning 
and wisdom." It will be very safe to follow Daniel's 
example — physically and morally safe. It will be 
very safe also to follow the example of the Rechabites, 
that were a Temperance-Society for so many ages in 
the midst of the surrounding drunkenness of Israel. 
It will be very safe to follow the example of Timothy, 
who was so much addicted (so entirely addicted) to 
the use of cold water as a beverage, that, when he 
became sick and needed wine as a medicine, the apos- 
tle had to recommend it to him, and actually to enjoin 
it upon him to take it. Timothy, then, was a cold- 
water-drinker. 

3. I take Scripture precepts upon the subject. I 
will mention only two, and pass rapidly on. "Look 
not upon the wine, when it is red, when it giveth its 
color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright." " Wine 
is a mocker ;" and if God tells man to put himself 
under the influence of " a mocker," then we under- 
stand not the meaning of Holy Scripture, which was 
given to " make us wise unto salvation." 

III. I pass on to my third and last proposition — 
That the total cessation from the use of 'ntoxicating 
20* 



234 SERMON IX. 

liquors as a beverage is necessary for the universal 
spread of the gospel. 

And I establish this proposition, first, by the actual 
effects of these substances, and of abstinence from them. 
And I wish you to look minutely into this point. 

Look at this effect. In the city of London there is 
a large number of persons, that occasionally may feel 
inclined to go to church ; but one of them is a mother, 
and she has not a garment with which a woman of 
proper feeling can bear to appear in a public assembly. 
And why not? Because her husband has used up all 
their substance at the gin-shop. If that husband would 
cease to drink intoxicating liquor — if he were not 
made indolent by it and prodigal by it, and did not 
waste just so much of his daily earnings — he could 
buy the proper dress for his wife and his children, 
and then that wife and those children could go to 
church in proper character. I have no doubt that 
there are hundreds of such cases ; and just so long as 
the use of these beverages exists, there will be a large 
portion of the poorer classes actually kept out of the 
church, and out of gospel-institutions, for the want of 
proper clothing. 

I ask you to look at another fact. A large number 
of men are now unwilling to go to church, and indif- 
ferent about it. because they are continually stupifled, 
and their religious sensibilities deadened, by the use 
of these intoxicating liquors. And as long as they 
continue to use them it will be so; but as soon as 
that spell is taken off, conscience will awake, and the 
solemri striving of the Spirit of God with their souls 
will make them feel that the sanctuary is the place for 
them, and they must go to the sanctuary. 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 235 

Look, I ask you, further still. There are hundreds 
who come to our churches, whom the use of ardent 
spirits entirely unfits to hear the gospel. It is not 
the eye fixed upon the minister, it is not the ear listen- 
ing to the minister, it is the awakened heart receiving 
the message of the minister, that the minister wants ; and 
I will venture to say, that every drop of intoxicating 
liquor taken has a tendency when taken, (I will not 
say to what extent the drop may go, but that it has a 
tendency) to interfere with the profitable hearing of the 
gospel. And I go further, and say, that the congrega- 
tion, who should see the minister in the pulpit sit down 
and drink two glasses of wine, would hardly stay to 
hear him p reach. And why? They would feel that 
there was something like unhallowed fire about him. 
And yet they are willing enough to have their minister 
go down from the pulpit, and drink his wine in private. 
My friends ! I believe that the world is nearer right 
than the world believes, and that, if we could get at the 
secret consciences of men, they would be with us on 
this subject. We know, that if the declaration of Jesus 
Christ is true, there is a class of men who are the "stony 
ground" and the "way-side" hearers; and of all hearers, 
surely the drinkers and the tipplers of intoxicating 
liquors are the persons. We venture to say, that if the 
principles of our Society could universally prevail, one 
of the chief temptations to thousands to stay away from 
the sanctuary — the enjoyments of the ale-house on the 
Sabbath — would be withdrawn ; and when that plea- 
sure is withdrawn, they would come soberly and so- 
lemnly to the house of God. 

There is another consideration. When the use of 
these substances ceases, there will be fewer temptations 



236 SERMON IX. 

to backsliding in the church. Yery early in the history 
of the church over which God made me pastor, we in- 
troduced the Temperance reformation, and applied it to 
every person seeking for admission ; and the effect has 
been, that that church has been less cursed with drunken 
members and doubtful members, (doubtful as to their 
sobriety,) than most of the churches with which I have 
been acquainted. We have sent a circular on this sub- 
ject to the ministers of the United States, and the re- 
turns are most frightful — that a large class of the trou- 
blesome cases have arisen from drunkenness, and that 
there is an immense temptation to backsliding in the 
instance of thoso, that are all their days walking on the 
borders of intoxication. Is it not dangerous to be stand- 
ing upon the frontier line of the enemy every day ? is 
it not dangerous to " look upon the wine when it is red. 
when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth 
itself aright," because " at the last it may bite like a ser- 
pent and sting like an adder ?" 

I believe, in the bottom of my heart, although I may 
not be able to prove it to others, that if these substances 
were swept from our churches, the solemn and fervent 
spirit of prayer would increase at once. I believe that 
it is a grand represser of prayer. I believe that the 
man who has taken three or four glasses of wine at his 
dinner, feels very unlike one going to prayer, and very 
unlike one going to weep at the foot of the cross. 
. I believe that if abstinence from intoxicating liquors 
prevailed and spread, there would be more money and 
more self-denial brought to the work of God in the 
world. We were told last night, that, in four counties 
in Wales, where the cause of Temperance has spread 
most gloriously in the last year, their donations to the 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 237 

cause of Jesus Christ have increased in this one year 
by six hundred pounds. They have saved it, and their 
hearts are made more liberal ; and this money is cheer- 
fully consecrated to spread the knowledge of Christ 
through the world. 

I believe, that ministers will physically have more 
strength, almost the very day that they commence 
abandoning these substances. And the time is coming, 
when ministerial strength will be taxed more and more. 
The churches are giving us more and more to do, and 
the world is demanding more and more at our hands. 
We want strong, iron constitutions now in the pulpit. 
It is my firm belief, that every time a minister puts the 
intoxicating glass to his lips, he impairs his strength, 
irritates the delicate nervous system, and so far unfits 
himself for his labors. It is the testimony of ministers 
that have tried both sides of the question, that their 
voices have become stronger, and that they feel alto- 
gether less exhaustion after preaching, when they go 
simply to the draught of cold water, if they need any 
quenching of their thirst after their arduous labors in 
the pulpit. It is the testimony of men of every class 
and every age. But I bring up one instance in particu- 
lar. In the state prison of Auburn in the State of New 
York, there are about eight hundred prisoners annually; 
the rigid principle adopted there is, that every prisoner, 
from the moment he enters, is debarred the use of in- 
toxicating liquor and of tobacco. The criminals have 
formerly generally indulged largely in both these sub- 
stances. What, now, is the worst effect on these eight 
hundred prisoners, who are thus suddenly broken oft* 
from these indulgences? — (that is the great fear of the 
world, — breaking off suddenly ; but what is the worst 



238 SERMON IX. 

effect on them?) It is the testimony of the keeper (a 
most sensible man), and of the chaplain (a most pious 
man), that, in some few cases, the men are pale debili- 
tated, and suffer loss of appetite for a week or two, (that 
is the worst effect,) but that, after the second week, 
they all have a healthy bloom upon their cheeks, they 
become more healthy, and no man has been known to 
die from it. The testimony of the keeper and the 
chaplain is, that every man has risen in physical health 
and strength and cheerfulness from it. And we say 
that there will be a vast increase of ministerial strength, 
when this doctrine shall become prevalent. 

You will allow me now to refer to one of the most 
important documents, which has been published in the 
United States of America on this subject. Before read- 
ing it, however, I beg to mention one single fact from 
the report of the New British and Foreign Temperance 
Society ; during the last year, out of 19,878 signatures, 
2637 were from reclaimed drunkards, of whom 479 
have been deemed by pastors worthy of admission to 
church fellowship. In the past year alone, 479 ! And 
here is the infidelity of our doctrine ! here is our infidel 
Temperance Society ! (as we have heard the objection 
wafted across the Atlantic.) Infidelity ! to bring men 
under the power of the gospel, and prepared to hear the 
gospel, and to sit down to celebrate the dying love of 
Christ ! 

Now let me turn to my own land, and tell of the 
effects of Temperance reformation. 

" In one town in Massachusetts, a Temperance dis- 
course was delivered near the close of 1827. Numbers 
renounced the use of ardent spirits, and conducted all 
their business without it. Many were anxious to form 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 239 

a Temperance Society : but some among the aged and 
influential thought, that they could not do without a 
little, and no society was formed, till the young men, 
impatient at the delay of their fathers, called a meeting, 
and formed a society among themselves. They resolved 
to have stated meetings, collect information, and spread 
it through the town ; and at the first meeting many 
were solemn ; and at the second, anxious for their sal- 
vation ; a prayer was offered and the Holy Spirit de- 
scended upon them; the anxiety increased — became 
general and extended through the town — and more 
than two hundred, it is believed, have passed from 
death unto life. Ten of those young men are now 
preparing for the gospel ministry; and, should their 
lives be spared, and their talents consecrated to the Re- 
deemer, they may be instrumental in preparing many 
for an l exceeding and eternal weight of glory ;' and, 
could we trace the influence of that single Temperance 
Society, in all its various connections, bearings and 
consequences, upon the temporal and eternal interests 
of men, the vision would be transporting. And when 
the committee saw these societies rising, and extending 
their benign influences not merely over one but a thou- 
sand towns, and promising to extend them through the 
whole land and to all future ages, they could not but 
{ thank God and take courage.' " 

The opinion of the Committee of the New- York 
State Society is supported by such facts as the follow- 
ing:— A distinguished gentleman from that State writes 
— " The great and good work of the Lord goes on in 
the midst of us ; and the Temperance-movement, like 
John the Baptist, prepares the way of the Lord. One 
might follow in the wake of this movement, and say, 



240 SERMON IX. 

< The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' " Another gen- 
tleman, from another part of the State, writes — "In 
this country, it is notorious that those towns which 
have been the most active in the Temperance-cause, 
have been the most blessed by the Holy Spirit. In all 
the towns in this county, there have been revivals ; 
and. as a general remark, it may be said, that, in every 
town, those neighborhoods, which have done most in 
the promotion of Temperance, have been most blessed 

in religious matters. In C — , the Spirit has seemed 

to follow the Temperance-effort from neighborhood to 
neighborhood; and so in other places. In short, so 
manifest is the connection between Temperance and 
revivals of religion in this country, that we no more 
expect the latter where the former does not exist, than 
we expect snow in summer. This, of course, is a 
general remark. There are, undoubtedly exceptions." 

I read next the statement of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church in the United States— that 
large and respectable body to which I have the honor 
to belong, composed of about two thousand ministers. 
They say — 

" It is now a well-established fact, that the common 
use of strong drink, however moderate, has been a 
fatal, soul-destroying barrier against the influence of 
the gospel. Consequently, wherever total abstinence 
is practised, a powerful instrument of resisting the 
Holy Spirit is removed ; and a new avenue of access 
to the hearts of men opened to the power of truth. 
Thus, in numerous instances and in various places, 
during the past year, the Temperance-reformation has 
been a harbinger preparing the way of the Lord ; and 
the banishment of that liquid poison, which kills both 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 241 

soul and body, has made way for the immediate en- 
trance of the Spirit and the word, the glorious train of 
the Redeemer. But, a great work is still to be affected 
in the Church. The sons of Levi must be purged. 
The accursed thing must be removed from the camp 
of the Lord. While professing Christians continue to 
exhibit the baleful example of tasting the drunkard's 
poison, or, by a sacrilegious traffic, to make it their em- 
ployment to degrade and destroy their fellow-men, 
those who love the Lord must not keep silence, but 
must lift up their warning voice, and use all lawful 
efforts to remove this withering reproach from the house 
of God." 

And thus commissioned by my brethren and fathers 
in Israel, I do, in the strength of God and in the love 
of Christ and of his Church and of the souls of men, 
" lift up," to-night, my " warning voice." However 
feebly, it speaks the truth ; and God is in and with his 
truth. 

I will read but one more document — " A gentleman 
from Tennessee writes, that the formation of a Temp- 
erance-Society in his vicinity was followed by such a 
revival of religion, as in those parts was never before 
known ; that in numerous other places where Temp- 
erance-Societies were formed, they were followed by 
the same glorious results ; and that, in a compass of 
about three miles, as the result apparently of the 
Temperance-reformation, more than three hundred 
persons were hopefully added to the Lord. And so 
generally has it been followed by such results, that it 
is spoken of in various countries, and even on opposite 
sides of the globe, as < John the Baptist,' preparing the 
way of the Lord. Whether the reason of this can be 

21 



242 SERMON IX. 

philosophically and satisfactorily explained or not, the 
fact is settled, that intoxicating liquor tends from be- 
ginning to end to increase human wickedness, and also 
to render 4hat wickedness permanent. The men, there- 
fore, who make it, and the men, who furnish it to be 
used as a drink, are, by their whole influence in doing 
this, increasing the vices and augmenting the woes of 
mankind. And though some of them profess to be 
friends to Temperance, and to wish to nave it prevail 
and become universal, they are taking the very course 
for ever to prevent it." 

This is the testimony from the other side of the 
water. 

I now go on with my argument ; and I proceed to 
state that the effects of total abstinence now are re- 
sembling the promised effects of the Millennium. What 
is the Millennium ? It is to produce order. Go into 
that family, that, a year ago, was under the influence 
of a drunken father — go into that family, now a totally- 
abstaining family, and see how order and peace have 
begun to prevail. Peace — " peace on earth !" Look 
at peace restored in that family ; look at peace restored 
in that neighborhood ; see the dove, that has come to 
that family and to that neighborhood with the olive- 
branch of peace in its mouth. It will not be by mira- 
cle, that the reign of order and of peace will come in ; 
it will be by the simple operation of ordinary causes ; 
and here is one of those grand causes — the prevalence 
of the Temperance-reformation. 

Love will more abound ; for these intoxicating sub- 
stances render the heart more and more callous and 
more and more selfish. God has declared, that " there 
shall be none to hurt or destroy in all his holy mount ;" 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 243 

and I ask, if on " his holy mount" there will be a 
brewery or a distillery? No — no — no! You never 
saw a brewery that did not curse the neighborhood in 
which it was built ; you never saw a distillery that did 
not blight the land over which it rolled its fumes ; and 
if that prediction is to come true, and if nothing shall 
hurt and nothing destroy in the holy mount of God, 
then there will be no fabrication of these intoxicating 
poisons. 

The very movement of the Temperance-reformation 
collaterally aids the revival of religion. Look at its 
effect in bringing to view personal responsibility for 
personal actions and personal influence. It is doing 
just the very thing that John the Baptist did — mak- 
ing every individual feel his individual responsibility. 
Every Temperance-address to the maker or the vender, 
every Temperance-address to the drinker, of intoxicat- 
ing liquors, calls him to look at the question again, Am 
I doing any hurt in the world ? It makes men see, that 
that question, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" is a wicked 
question : you are " your brother's keeper ;" and the 
more powerfully the Temperance-question moves on in 
the world, the more does it bring men to act under the 
solemn personal influence of the feeling of personal 
responsibility. 

It brings lessons of self-denial. It is hard for a man, 
that has been living in luxury on the profits of these 
substances, to go and close his distillery, and close his 
brewery, and close his ale-house ; it is hard, but it is 
right — it is right — it is RIGHT. It is lovely. We 
have begun to see it done ; we have quenched the fires 
of nearly two thousand distilleries in our own States — 
not by force, not by legislative enactment, — but by the 



244 SERMON IX. 

power of conscience. And I want to know, whether 
these distillers, that went and put out their fires and 
sold their vessels for old copper, were or were not better 
members of society for it, and better prepared for help- 
ing onward the work of God ? Let this glorious cause 
move on ; let all the publicans of London begin to 
tremble, as they see the blood of souls staining their 
hands ; let all those, that live by the profits of this 
practice, begin to weigh the question solemnly, and 
then determine to deny themselves for the good of their 
fellow-men ; that is one of the very preparations for the 
glorious introduction of this gospel of self-denial. 

It creates sympathy for the most degraded. Tem- 
perate men have learned to love the drunkard. There 
is many a man that gives up drinking simply from this 
consideration. And I wish you to understand, that 
I am not, perhaps, expressing to-night the sentiments 
of the greater part of the Temperance-Societies in 
Great Britain ; I give up all these substances, because 
I think them all poisonous ; my brethren do not, and 
it is benevolent in them to give up drinking them, as 
they do ; it would be murder in me to give a man what 
I believe to be poison — it is benevolence in them not 
to give it. When a man banishes these liquors from 
his table, his guest may be forming that very day the 
critical habit ; or that very day he may be a recovered 
drunkard. I know that he subjects himself to all the 
pain of appearing niggardly and inhospitable and un- 
kind : but it is noble to dare to do right, it is noble to 
bear sneers, it is godlike to love the poor drunkard, 
so that you say, < This right hand shall go off rather 
than contribute one movement towards pushing the 
drunkard to destruction ; I come out and rid my hands 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 245 

from the whole. I come out and separate myself from 
the whole machinery of drunkenness, I do it for my 
brother's sake !' When I was a little boy, the drunkard 
was my sport ; I joined with my companions in de- 
riding him along the streets ; now I have learned to 
feel that the drunkard is my brother ; and those filthy- 
rags that cover him, and that filthy mouth that utters 
obscenity intolerable, do not repel the man that has 
determined to hazard all to save a brother. This is 
still my brother ; and he may yet be washed and re- 
newed and saved, and shine in the presence of God — 
an angel for ever. 

You will bear with me perhaps still further, while 
I state this great point in confirmation of my argu- 
ment ; we must send Christianity to the Pagan, but 
it must be a purified Christianity — it must not be a 
wine-drinking Christianity. When the colonists went 
to the United States of America, (which were the colo- 
nies originally,) they found there the Indian ; what 
have they done to the Indian ? they have almost exter- 
minated the tribes ; how ? the sword has done something, 
but strong drink has done the work : and, if you want 
now to see a degraded being on earth, go to the once 
lord of the forest. You have heard of that elevated 
bearing, that showed him free as the air he breathed, 
and as the leopard of the woods, or the mountain-goat ; 
now what is he ? he is the most perfect beast in the 
shape of a man, that can be found upon earth ; that is 
now the Indian lurking near American habitations, the 
habitations of Christian and civilized men. Why ? He 
is drunk from morning to night, if he can get intoxi- 
cating liquor. Was the Indian a drunkard, when we 
went there ? No, no ; when the Englishman landed 

21* 



246 SERMON IX. 

there, the Indian knew none of the curse of intoxication. 
But he has learned it ; and I am afraid that God has 
yet a controversy with my beloved nation for that sin, 
as well as for some others. Oh ! is this the way to lift 
up a nation — to carry them these polluting substances ? 
I would that every Missionary were a drinker of nothing 
but cold water. Why, one of the grand difficulties 
that our Missionaries now meet with, is the presence 
of our commercial men and our sailors at the stations ; 
they say. l There is a specimen of what you want to 
make us; you want to make us like those drunkards ;' 
and they have laughed at the Missionary ; and well 
may they. « That is Christianity !' Well, the Mission- 
ary says, < But these are drunkards !' < What makes 
them drunkards V < Strong drink.' l Well, is that the 
line of demarcation in your country? have all Chris- 
tians given it up ? ' Oh ! no ; strong drink is made by 
Christians, and drunk by Christians; it is in the 
Church that this strong drink lies/ That is what the 
Missionary has to tell the Pagan in fidelity and in truth ; 
and, as long as he does it, here lies a powerful restrainer 
of the influence of our Missionary exertions. Which 
of two Missionaries would you rather have go to the 
heathen — a man that tells them to drink cold water, 
or one that tells them to drink moderately intoxicating 
liquors? 

You will bear with me in the last argument on this 
proposition— the little that can be pleaded on the other 
side. What is it? 

One man says, I have to take it as a medicine. Now 
mark ; every such person is on our side, and he ought 
to be a tee-totaller. Every physican that prescribes it 
as a medicine is with us, and every patient that takes 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 247 

it as a medicine is with us — because it cannot be a 
medicine and a beverage too ; it is one or the other. 
We contend that it is a medicine, we contend that it is 
a poison, fit to be given to sick persons under careful 
and proper prescriptions ; we deny that it is proper to 
take as a beverage. All these, I say, are with us ; be- 
cause the idea of telling people to drink a little diluted 
arsenic every day because a physician prescribes it to 
the sick is presposterous. So I once said, after arguing 
on the deck of a steam-boat with a gentleman upon this 
subject, for about half an hour, in the presence of a 
crowd of passengers that gathered around us. He ap- 
peared to be affected, because I had pressed his con- 
science with the truth ; " My dear sir," said he, " it is 
cruel in you." " What is cruel in me ?" " Why thus 
to press me, when my physician has told me that I 
must drink it or die." " My dear sir ! why did not you 
tell me at the beginning of the argument, you were an 
invalid ? and why have you been, for this half an hour, 
endeavoring to persuade all these people around you 
to take your medicine?" I do not wish to destroy that 
plea, and this is not the place nor the time to treat of 
it ; but I do wish this distinction to be made, that every 
person, who advocates its use as a medicine, gives up 
its use as a beverage ; or else it would present this 
strange anomaly, that the only medicine in the whole 
materia medica to be so used is alcohol. It is not so 
with mix vomica, it is not so with coculus indicus, it 
is not so with laudanum, it is not so with opium ; it is 
only so with alcohol. We venture to say, that, when 
that point comes to be reflected upon closely, it will be 
abandoned. 

Appetite can be pleaded. Interest can be pleaded. 



248 SERMON IX. 

The rules of hospitality can be pleaded. And so can 
the Scriptures, inasmuch as on this important subject 
the Bible seems to recommend the use of wine. Now 
I will, as briefly as I can, present my views on that 
difficult and delicate point. 

I will say (to begin) that, if I can find that my bless- 
ed Redeemer made and gave intoxicating drink, I drop 
my strong argument : I simply then say, that I find 
that I am better without it, and I cannot tell but what 
other people are better with it ; I give up the Tem- 
perance cause, because I advocate it on the belief that 
intoxicating drink (or alcohol rather,) is a poison, and 
I do not believe Jesus Christ ever made poison to give 
to a man in health. I state this, in order to show my 
profound reverence for the authority of my Savior, and 
to dissociate myself entirely from the infidel spirit and 
the infidel man that would say, — ' I will maintain my 
Temperance, let the Bible go where it will.' I have no 
part nor lot with him. 

Now I say that it is a question of interpretation, a 
question as to the meaning of language. When Jesus 
Christ is said to have made " wine" for the feast at Cana, 
the question is, what does that word tvine mean ? I 
want to get light on that fact. I find that there are two 
kinds of wine mentioned in the Bible, because I find 
that the Bible in other places reprobates the use of wine 
in the most unqualified language. Do you believe, that 
Jesus Christ sat at table and made for a company of 
people that, which the Holy Ghost has denominated 
" a mocker ?" Do you believe, that the divine Savior 
said, "Look not upon the wine," and yet "I will make 
it for you" — make that which " at the last will bite like 
a serpent and sting like an adder ?" I say it is evident, 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 249 

that in the Bible two kinds of wine are mentioned. 
Well, then, in this case which kind was it ? Here I get 
light. I go and examine the nature of acoholic wine ; 
I find it always the same ; I find it to be just that kind 
of substance described in the Bible, " sparkling in the 
cup," and I find it "biting like a serpent, and stinging 
like an adder," and leading on to whoredom, and with 
whoredom " taking away the heart" of man ; I find it 
treating men just as it did Noah, just as it did Lot, just 
as it did Korah, Dathan and Abiram; I find all its 
effects, just as described by the prophets in their solemn 
reproofs of Israel. Then, I say, I am inclined to believe 
a priori that Jesus Christ never made it ; and when I 
find, that there were two kinds of wine in use among 
the Jews, I rest in the conviction that he made that 
which was not intoxicating, and that in the Lord's sup- 
per he gave the fruit of the vine, and not the putrifying 
substance that is now called wine — that he gave the 
pure juice of the grape. 1 ask a person how he recon- 
ciles the Bible, if he supposes there was but one kind of 
wine ; our view of it takes the passages that reprobate 
wine to speak of wine that intoxicates ; and the passages 
that sanction wine to speak of the wine that does not in- 
toxicate. And I will mention here, (as I have known 
it to throw light on some minds,) that you will remem- 
ber, in the case of the chief butler in the prison relating 
his dream to Joseph, he says that he squeezed out the 
juice of the grape into Pharaoh's cup. There you see 
was the juice of the grape immediately drunk ; and I 
find it a very pleasant drink. We thus find the Scrip- 
tures harmonize with nature, with chemistry, with phy- 
siology, with fact ; you do not : you cannot reconcile 
the thing, and we cannot reconcile the thing. 



250 SERMON IX. 

And then, further, I say that none of you, I believe, 
would like to have your children grow up in the same 
habit ; or I believe that you would feel safer in having 
your children give it up, and you would wish, that, 
though you may use them, the next generation might 
leave them off, and you feel that the world would be 
better. 

I make, in closing, one or two inferences from my 
subject. 

And I say that the venders and manufacturers of in- 
toxicating liquors ought to take the subject. into most 
solemn consideration. They ought to be able to call, if 
they have truth on their side, — and I wish they would 
do this, I wish that they would call— Anti-Temperance 
meetings. I wish that they would have their strong 
men. and their strong ministers and their strong speakers 
come out and enlighten us. We had a glorious meet- 
ing last night ; we had a meeting full of soul, full of 
heart, full of earnestness, and full of eloquence ; it was 
a blessed meeting, and for one I felt — ' God approves it;' 
for one I felt as if we that promoted it were receiving 
the thanks of humanity. I ask them to get up such a 
meeting, and bring forward their strong arguments and 
show that they are right. All I hear is in secret ; I see 
a sneer or a laugh ; I am met at this table and at that 
table with a jeer and a joke, and a passing jest thrown 
out here and there. I wish if there is not truth on our 
side, that we might be stopped. If we have exaggerated 
views, they must all come down — for nothing but truth 
will live and triumph. But after all that, J say that, as 
I think, every man engaged in the manufacture of in- 
toxicating liquor as a beverage, every man engaged in 
preparing it or offering it for sale, to tempt the public 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 251 

appetite and to tempt the poor drunkard, ought to stop, 
an$ ask whether this is not one of the " mountains" that 
must come down, whether this is not one of the " crooked 
places" that must be made straight, one of the " rough 
places" that must be made plain, that the Son of God 
may come in his gospel and in his Spirit. I ask the 
calm and candid consideration of those, that are engaged 
in the manufacture or the traffic. They will bear with 
me, as a man ; I speak in much love to them, and to 
society, which I believe they are injuring. No matter 
how kind your intention, no matter how kind your feel- 
ing, I believe you are stabbing society in its dearest in- 
terests. If I am wrong, do not believe me ; but if I am 
right, do not be offended, because I speak it in love ; I 
speak it as one that must stand at the bar of God, and 
hear again what I say from this place of authority and 
of instruction ; I say, you are helping to make the 
drunkards of London and the drunkards of England — 
you, and none but you are making drunkards. You 
say, — • they make themselves :' I know they do ; but 
you had better go deeply into that solemn question of 
moral phylosophy, whether the man, that knowingly 
contributes to the ruin of another, even by that other's 
fault, will not be held guilty at the bar of God. Of the 
man, that had an ox which was known to gore, and let 
the ox go loose for his pleasure or profit, God said, — 
1 let him answer even to his life for the life of any that 
may be killed.' The man, that had a flat roof, an ori- 
ental roof, without any battlement, God held accounta- 
ble for any who fell hence, because he had neglected to 
put up a parapet, and the blood was required at his 
door. Take care yon are not found accessary to 
drunkard-making in a guilty sense, 



252 SERMON IX. 

I ask you to look at this fact ; your success is the 
ruin of the public and of families. Every bottle and 
every glass you send out goes on a mission of misery 
and of death. The drunkard is on the outer circle of 
the vast whirlpool, and you are tempting him carelessly 
to float along, and each succeeding circle turns shorter 
and shorter, and you just turn away when the poor 
creature with one ineffectual struggle sinks to rise no 
more. Oh ! it is a dreadful trade, to be making drunk- 
ards. It is a dreadful thing, to sell out the large mass 
in pipes and hogsheads and barrels, that, you know, 
goes forth like scorching streams of lava through the 
community. You know that it will curse that poor 
family ; you know that it will make that man prodigal 
of his property, and careless of the wants of his children 
and his wife ; you know that it will produce poverty 
and disease and misery, and death and hell to men. 
Perhaps this bottle will not, but that bottle may ; per- 
haps this pipe will not, but that pipe may. It is certain 
that somebody is doing the work of death. Six hun- 
dred thousand drunkards in England ! who makes 
them? who sustains them? Nobody? Does nobody 
make money out of these six hundred thousand drunk- 
ards ? These six hundred thousand rob their families, 
rob themselves, rob the public (for they become paupers); 
who gets the money ? See if it is not in your hands. 

My brother ! I do not charge you ; I only ask you to 
look at the matter. I ask you to go home and pray 
over your trade. But how will you frame your prayer ? 
Will you ask God to send you more customers and 
more drunkards to your brew-house or to your shop ? 
why, then you ask to have more of his creatures ruined 
in body and in soul! Oh! a distillery, or a spirit- 



TEMPERANCE AND RELIGION. 253 

cellar, is a dreadful place in which to hold a prayer- 
meeting. I should think a man could hardly ask God 
to bless such a trade. I should like to see how he 
would pray over it. Would he say — < O Lord ! do not 
let this bottle do any harm ; counteract the poisonous 
and soul-hardening effects of this alcohol ; I do not 
want to hurt any one, I only want to get the profit of 
tempting them to their ruin ; I do not want to do the 
harm that this must do in the natural course of 
things V Dare he speak so to his Maker ? 

Let me state one other fact ; there are widows pray- 
ing against you ; there are widows in this city lodging 
a suit in Heaven's chancery against you. They are 
weak ; you may not be afraid of them. But God hears 
them ; >and when the wife says, " May God restrain the 
arm, that is taking away my husband !" — and when 
the widow sometimes says, in the agony of her soul, 
" God blight the arm, that administers that poison !" — 
oh ! it may be heard, it may be heard. I would not 
stand with you ; I would not live, ministering out the 
poison to my fellow-men. 

I say (to close the whole) to the vender, to the traffick- 
er, to the manufacturer : — You may ruin one soul by 
it : one man may die a drunkard, by that which you 
make and that which you sell — one man, one immortal 
soul, just one! And as God has said no drunkard 
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, what will be your 
gain if you make one ? — if that one at the judgment 
day shall lift up his voice, and say, " You, you were 
the author of my guilt, my wretchedness, my damna- 
tion V 

My hearers ! I close ; but my heart — my heart feels 
for man. My heart prays, that God would incline his 



254 SERMON IX. 

church to come out, (to a man to come out,) and rid 
themselves of the whole machinery of drunkenness, 
and all its connections, and all its ramifications, and all 
its work of death. 

"Prepare ye, prepare ye the way of the 
Lord." 



SERMON X. 



ON THE TRAFFIC IN INTOXICATING 

LiaUORS. 



" Thou shalt not kill? — Exodus xx. 13. 

This is a part of the law of God which is given to 
every human being. And whether heeded, or disre- 
garded, it forms a part of the great standard by which, 
in the day of final judgment, every man's actions will 
be tried. Its design is obvious. Like every other 
divine command or prohibition, it states the rights 
either of God, or of his creatures : and demands a re- 
gard to these rights on the penalty of eternal death. 
One command guards one precious interest ; another 
presents and defends another. The prohibition before 
us brings to view one of man's dearest earthly interests 
— his life. It is a gift of God, a precious boon. Most 
tenderly has he guarded it; most sternly does he 
threaten, and most dreadfully will he execute the 
threat, on every ruthless invader who lifts his hand,— 
yea, who harbors in his heart a desire, against it. Here 
the laws of man in every civilized society have imitated 
the law of God. And as nations advance in civiliza- 
tion, while they are continually mitigating the punish- 



256 SERMON X. 

ment of other crimes, they still hold out the severest 
of all their penalties against this : — " Thou shalt not 
kill." 

If this is a command of God, binding us all to avoid 
a certain course of action, all are bound to understand 
its meaning and extent; and it must be the solemn 
duty of every interpreter of the divine law to explain 
it faithfully. I shall resort to two sources of explana- 
tion. One is the statute book of God's moral kingdom, 
the other is the criminal law of civilized nations, the 
result of the combined wisdom and maturest reflections 
of successive ages. 

We will first consult the laws of men, and carry out 
their principles to their legitimate results, considering 
them as sound expositors of the divine law. For, it is 
a very interesting observation, that the wisdom and 
mercy of God's laws have been discovered by the very 
necessities of society, just as far as it advances in the 
attainment of happiness. 

The first thing we find, is the division of murder 
into two degrees. The difference between them ap- 
pears to be this. It is murder in the first degree to kill 
another intentionally — in the second degree, to kill un- 
intentionally. And the second degree is deemed to in- 
fer guilt, just in proportion as there is manifested a 
selfish indifference to human life. 

We notice again, that the length of time between 
doing the act which causes death and the death itself, 
does not alter the criminality, provided the testimony 
of medical men will only show that the act was the 
cause of the death. 

We notice again, that a distinction is made between 
two classes of murderers, without any difference in 



INTOXICATING LiaUORS. 257 

their guilt or punishment. They are principals and 
accessories. A principal does the fatal deed. An ac- 
cessory makes, or gives, or sells the fatal instrument, 
or in some way, knowingly sustains the principal. 
With regard to the second degree of murder, they de- 
fine it an act which produces death under circum- 
stances manifesting not intention to kill, but a wicked 
recklessness of human life. — For example : the suffer- 
ing a beast to run at large, when it is known to be 
mad, or in any way dangerous. You will notice that 
it is, the suffering the beast to run at large. But if a 
man should turn out such a beast, suppose a lion or a 
tiger, whether for sport or profit, and it takes away life ; 
this is pronounced murder in the second degree. 

We may cite one or two cases from law-reports, to 
illustrate what is meant by homicide. A son, who 
cruelly and unnaturally exposed his sick father to the 
open air in inclement weather, whereby his death was 
occasioned, was held to be guilty of murder. And so 
was a woman, who caused the death of her child, by 
leaving it in an orchard, scantily covered with leaves, 
whereby it perished. This is, then, the decision of 
human justice ; that, to constitute murder, it is not re- 
quisite either to use a deadly weapon, or to show any 
other feelings than those of selfish indifference to 
human life. 

And we may notice once more, what our laws say 
about the instrument by which death is caused. They 
say it is murder, whether it be by sword, fire, fire-arms, 
drowning, beating, or poison. You will notice, they 
say — poison. And then our courts depend on physi- 
cians to tell them what are poisons. And here I must 
stop a moment to inquire, whether or not it can be more 

22* 



258 SERMON X . 

wicked to kill by one poison than by another 1 Does it 
make any difference to the interests of society, whether 
you murder by arsenic, or by alcohol, if both be poisons? 
Does it make any difference to the law of God, to an 
enlightened conscience, to the agonized wife or parent, 
to the poor suicide who has rushed to the bar of his 
God, unbidden and unforgiven ? Yes, my hearers ! it 
does make a difference. And you shall yet see on 
which side the difference lies. But I have only anti- 
cipated so much, in order to show that human laws are 
not consistent with themselves — that murder by one 
poison is punished with the most ignominious death, 
while murder by another is sustained by the very same 
code. And another of its imperfections, which indeed 
is intrinsic, is this — that it has tried in vain, to punish 
self-murder. The ignominious exposure of the corpse 
was a punishment which alighted alone on the broken- 
hearted, innocent survivors. God, however, can punish 
suicide. And there is, my hearers ! another law by 
which, and another tribunal at which, all men must be 
judged. I have referred to human laws, merely be- 
cause, as far as they go, they illustrate the divine. But, 
as has been remarked, they do not carry their own prin- 
ciple far enough, and hence are inconsistent with them- 
selves. Not that I can discover in the Bible any other 
principles on this subject, than those now described. 
But it is evident, that, as the Psalmist says — " Thy 
commandments are exceeding broad." There is an 
extent of application, which is not known in human 
jurisprudence. It is said, for instance — " If a man hate 
his brother, he is a murderer." Here is murder de- 
tected, condemned and punished, when found only in 
the heart, without an overt act. I admit that human 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 259 

tribunals can never judge thus. But our Judge will. 
When our Savior explained the Mosaic law he re- 
marked — " It has been said, thou shalt not kill, but I 
say unto you, whosoever shall say to his brother, thou 
fool ! is in danger of hell-fire." Here, in explaining 
the sixth commandment, he ranks the mere expression 
of contempt as, in God's sight, tantamount, in guilt, to 
murder. Even under the Mosaic law, it did not require 
any direct act which caused death, to constitute murder. 
It was then just as it is now ; if a man had an ox that 
was known to push with his horn, and he killed a man ; 
both the ox and his owner were held responsible, and 
both were sacrificed. Or, if he built a house, — as their 
roofs were flat and places of much resort in that warm 
climate, — if he neglected to put up a parapet on the 
outer and inner wall, — and by that neglect a man should 
fall over and be killed, the blood was upon that house. 
We see, then, the following principles embraced in 
this law : — 

1. Certain things are means of life and happiness, 
when used in a certain way. For instance, you may 
employ fire-arms to destroy beasts of prey, poisons as 
medicines, alcohol in manufactures, &c. 

2. These articles may be made instruments of misery 
and death, by being used in certain other ways. Fire- 
arms may be used to take away the life of an unoffend- 
ing fellow creature. Arsenic, or alcohol, may be taken 
into the human system in such quantities as to destroy 
life. The latter has indeed been called " a good crea- 
ture of God." So is fire ; but is that any reason why 
you should kindle it in the middle of your floor, or 
upon your bed? God made every thing to be put in 
its right place, but as we shall presently see, he never 



260 SERMON X . 






made alcohol for the human stomach, nor the human 
stomach for alcohol. 

3. To use them thus on our own persons, or rather 
to abuse them, is suicide. 

4. To give them gratuitously, or to sell them to 
another to be thus abused, is murder. 

To illustrate ; — if you sell a deadly weapon to a man 
when you know his intention thus to abuse it, if men 
can prove that you know it, they will convict you of 
murder, as an accessory. And, as God can prove it, he 
will certainly hold you guilty. 

5. Human and divine laws admit but one excuse or 
plea. That is — involuntary, or unavoidable ignorance ; 
when you txmld not know the use to be made, or had 
no reason to suspect such use ; or if you could not 
know the tendency of the article to produce death 
when so used. For if you had, and yet should sell or 
give, it would betray that very recklessness of life, after 
which the law searches. 

I would now pass from this discussion of abstract 
principles, to consider the following proposition. 

To use alcohol as an ordinary drink, is suicide. To 
make, give, or sell it to be so used, is murder by the 
statutes of Heaven ; and ought, in consistency, to be, 
by the laws of human governments. It was some time, 
after the reformation commenced, before its friends 
would call the "moderate" use of alcohol, immoral. 
They were yet more cautious in pronouncing the traffic 
an immorality. But there is now no hesitation on the 
part of those who have thoroughly examined the sub- 
ject. 

We will first introduce some comparisons that have 
been made. 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 261 

w The time will come, when reflecting men will no 
more think of making and vending ardent spirits, or of 
erecting and renting grog-shops as a means of gain, 
than they would now think of poisoning a well, from 
which a neighbor obtains water for his family, or of 
arming a maniac to destroy his own life, or the lives 
of others." — Chancellor Walworth. 

" Can it be right for me to derive my living from that 
which is spreading disease, and poverty, and premature 
death throughout my neighborhood ? Would it be right 
for me to derive my living from selling poison, or from 
propagating plague or leprosy around me?" 

" Can it be right for me to derive my living from 
that, which is debasing the minds, ruining the souls, 
destroying for ever the happiness of the domestic circle, 
filling the land with women and children in a condition 
far more deplorable than that of widows and orphans ; 
which is the cause of nine-tenths of all the crimes 
which are perpetrated in society, and .brings upon it 
nine-tenths of all the pauperism which exists ; which 
accomplishes all these at once, and which does it with- 
out ceasing ? Do you say you are not responsible for 
the acts of your neighbor ? Is this clearly so 7 Is not 
he who navigates a slave-ship a pirate V — Rev. R. F. 
Wayland, a Baptist. 

We will now introduce some of the epithets that 
have been used. 

u It cannot be denied, that distillers, venders, and pur- 
chasers of ardent spirits are accessories to the crimes 
of drunkenness. It is an unhallowed traffic, 

AND LIKE THAT IN HUMAN BLOOD, SHOULD RECEIVE 
THE REPROBATION OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD." 

Circular Letter of the Nova Scotia Baptist Association. 



262 SERMON X. i 

"Who made the 300,000 drunkards that now defile 
and disgrace our country ? Who caused the death ot 
the 30,000 sots who have died in the United States 
within the past year ? Where does this responsibility 
rest? It must be somewhere. It can be nowhere 
else than upon the dealer in ardent spirits. I am deeply 
convinced that the evils of intemperance, can never 
cease, till the virtuous in society shall unite in pro- 
nouncing the man, who attempts to accumulate wealth, 
by dealing out poison and death to his neighbor, as 
infamous." — Rev. Mr. Pierpont, Unitarian. 

" I consider the man who deals in ardent spirits, a 
pirate on the rights of community." — Gerrit Smith. 

We will now introduce a fewof the assertions that 
have been made. 

" To make or sell ardent spirits for common use, is 
as wicked as to make or sell poisons for the same pur- 
pose. It being admitted that the use of this article is 
destructive to health, reputation, and property, (and 
the proof on this point is overwhelming,) it follows 
conclusively, that those who make it, sin with a high 
hand against God and their fellow men. The blood 
of murdered souls and bodies will be required at their 
hands." — Judge Dagget, of Conn. 

" This question we fearlessly submit to reason and 
to conscience. Is it not morally wrong 1 Is it not an 
offence against sound morality and true piety ? , We 
fear that all, engaged in this traffic, will be held ame- 
nable at the tribunal of the great day, not only as par- 
takers of other people's sins, in directly furnishing 
them with the means of committing the sin of intem- 
perance, but as responsible too, along with them, for 
those deeds of iniquity committed while under the 



INTOXICATING LIQ.UORS, 263 

influence of the intoxicating draught." — Glasgow 
paper. 

" The traffic in ardent spirits as a drink, is an im- 
morality, and ought to be viewed as such throughout 
the world." — Synod of Albany, and Gen. Associations 
of Conn., Mass., and Maine. 

" The evil effects of ardent spirits are not exhibited 
alone on those who drink. The very traffic stands 
unrivalled for its hardening and debasing influence 
on those engaged in its operations." — John L. Chand- 
ler, M. D. 

u No one can doubt that the traffic in ardent spirits 
is productive of immorality." — Rev. D. Skinner, Uni- 
versalist. 

" I challenge any man who understands the nature 
of ardent spirits, and yet, for the sake of gain, con- 
tinues to be engaged in the traffic, to show that he is 
not involved in the guilt of murder." — Dr. Beecher, 
Presbyterian. 

" They who keep these fountains of pollution and 
crime open, are sharers, to no small extent, in the 
guilt which flows from them. They command the 
gateway of that mighty flood, which is spreading 
desolation through the land ; and are chargeable with 
all the present and everlasting consequences, no less 
than the infatuated victim who throws himself upon 
the bosom of the burning torrent, and is borne by it 
into the gulf of woe." — Dr* Spring, Presbyterian. 

"No proposition seems to me susceptible of more 
satisfactory demonstration than this ; that, in the pre- 
sent state of information on this subject, no man can 
think to act on Christian principles, or do a patriot's 
duty to his country, and at the same time make or 



264 SERMON X. 

sell the instrument of intoxication." — Rev. H. Ware 
Unitarian. 

Such are the comparisons, epithets, and assertions 
by which leading men of various professions, and va- 
rious religious denominations have expressed their 
views of this traffic. One or two of them have done 
more, as you perceive, than call it immoral. They 
have shown wherein the immorality consists. Yes, 
they have asserted the very doctrine of this discourse. 
And now to the proof of that doctrine ; which is — that 
to use alcohol as an ordinary drink is suicide ; to make, 
give, or sell it to be so used, is murder by the statutes 
of Heaven, and ought to be, in consistency, by the 
laws of human governments. The validity of the 
proof depends upon the truth and justice of those prin- 
ciples, which we have found in the laws of civilized 
countries, and in the Bible. To them we must, there- 
fore, refer. It has been stated that, in a case of murder, 
three things are inquired after. 1. Was the person 
killed 1 2. Was it by an overt act of another 1 3. Was 
it done with feelings of malice, revenge, or by an un- 
dervaluing of human life 7 And the feelings of the 
murderer determine whether it is murder in the first or 
second degree. Another inquiry may arise. Is he 
principal, or accessory ? If he directly administered 
the poison, in the case of death by poison, he is prin- 
cipal. If he sold it to a second person, knowing that 
he meant to sell it to a third, to be used in a way that 
injured life ; then he is an accessory before the fact. 
And the only point further needed to prove our propo- 
sition, is — whether alcohol taken into the stomach is a 
poison. On this point, whenever there is any doubt 
in a court, they send for medical men. These are the 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 265 

witnesses, I shall presently subpoena, after you hav^ 
listened for a few moments to the vender's pleas. I say 
nothing now about the suicidal guilt of drinking alco- 
hol ; because it will be involved in the other principle^ 
if that be established. 

Pleas of the alcohol seller: 

1. If I should kill a man by arsenic, it would be 
murder ; but I sell alcohol. 

I grant, that this plea will now acquit you at the 
bar of an unenlightened conscience, of an uninformed 
public sentiment, and in the criminal courts of human 
governments. But, from what part of God's statute 
will you draw the ground of such a plea ? In which 
chapter is it written, — 'you shall not kill by arsenic, 
but you may by alcohol V When inquisition is made 
for blood ; when a precious human life has been de- 
stroyed ; can that righteous lawgiver admit such a 
distinction? 

2. But I deny that it is a poison like arsenic. Then 
let us call in the medical men. We begin with Dr. 
Rush. He declared, that it was a poison, which brought 
on eighteen or twenty of the most painful, formidable, 
and fatal diseases. Go to all the books on Materia 
Medica. Look at the index, for the word alcohol, and 
you will be referred to the class of narcotic vegetable 
poisons, and find it ranked, for its effects on the human 
body, with henbane, deadly nightshade, and hemlock; 
and considered as exerting on the human frame an in- 
fluence similar to the continued action of the plague, 
typhus fever, and small-pox. While they thus con- 
sider alcohol a poison, when taken into the stomach, 
they trace its deadly march, and watch its effects on 
the vital organs. It is carried by the blood to every 

23 



266 SERMON X. 

one, and each is deranged by its touch. They have 
extensively signed the declaration in this country and 
in Great Britain, that it is the constant source of dis- 
ease and death. Many of them assure us, that the 
Cholera gathers half its virulence from the poisonous 
effects of alcohol. " I have no doubt," says an eminent 
physician, " that one half of the men, who die of fevers 
every year, might recover, had it not been for the use 
of spirituous liquor. No one but a physician knows, 
how powerfully all inflammatory diseases are increased 
even by what is called temperate drinking; or how 
fatally the best remedies in the world are counteracted 
by the same cause. I have seen men who were never 
intoxicated, prostrated twenty days with a fever, who, 
but for the use of ardent spirits, probably would not 
have been confined to the house for a day." Dr. 
Hosack has remarked that one in ten of the Quakers 
lives to eighty years, while the average of human life 
is such that only one in forty lives to that age. This 
he traces to their total abstinence from the use of dis- 
tilled liquors. Thus it is manifest, that the use of 
ardent spirits takes an average of fourteen years from 
every human life. A physician in this State, from his 
own observation and accurate calculation, ascertained 
the difference between the life of the sober and the 
drunken to be about thirty years. Can it then be over- 
rating, when the number destroyed by alcohol in the 
United States is computed to be 50,000 annually ? And 
can any vender of ardent spirits plead before an intel- 
ligent community, or at the bar of God — <Iam not 
selling poison V But he continues his apologies. 

3. < You surely cannot call it murder, when a man 
may drink this poison for fifty years and not die' 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 267 

This plea we have anticipated, by showing that the 
length of time between the act which caused death, and 
the death itself, does not alter its criminality, provided 
medical men will testify that the act caused the death. 
And although it may screen you at an earthly tribunal, 
it surely cannot at that bar where infinite justice pre- 
sides. If some men do drink and live fifty years, others 
lose thirty years of life. These United States lose yearly 
from thirty thousand to fifty thbusand lives by you and 
your colleagues in the work of death. Who is respon- 
sible for these, if you are not ? He replies again : 

4. ' I have no unkind or malicious feelings towards 
any of my customers.'' There is in history a famous 
case parallel to this. When Jesus of Nazareth stood 
before Pilate, the Roman governor reverenced him ; he 
was convinced of his innocence ; he indulged none but 
the kindest feelings towards him. And when at last he 
signed the death warrant, he took water, before the peo- 
ple, and washed his hands. Did he wash from his soul 
the stain of murder 1 I apprehend that we shall give 
a unanimous verdict in that case. There is another : — 
Judas Iscariot seems never to have entertained any 
malice prepense towards his Master. And when he 
saw the unanticipated result of his treachery, he was so 
astounded and overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, that 
life was intolerable. Another case : — The highwayman 
who stopped Rowland Hill in his carriage, had no ma- 
lice, as is evident from the sequel ; and was even a 
tender hearted man, driven by the wants of his family 
to this desperate course. Suppose he had murdered 
Mr. Hill ; would he have been guilty ? If so ; then let 
us draw a parallel. The vender of alcohol has no un- 
kind feelings towards the victims, who die beneath the 



268 SERMON X . 

scorching fires of the still. Neither had Pilate, nor 
Judas, nor the highwayman in the cases alluded to. 
The vender only wants to obtain money. So did Ju- 
das and the highw ayman. Pilate only wanted to save 
his credit. The vender would even be rejoiced to ob- 
tain his ends without the fatal results. For venders 
are men, possessed of conscience and sensibility. They 
can feel distressed at another's woe. And their busi- 
ness is to them a source of much distress, whenever 
they do trace it to its results. It would, this hour, 
lighten up the corroding burden from ten thousand dis- 
tressed minds in this country ; it would create a jubilee, 
if it could be ascertained and proclaimed abroad, that 
all which has been said about alcohol is false, and 
should be contradicted by the same intelligent, upright, 
competent, influential men, who have expressed their 
views on this subject. So would Pilate have rejoiced 
to have saved his honor and his victim. So would 
Herod Antipas have delighted to save John the Baptist, 
and at the same time his credit with those who sat about 
him. Judas and the highwayman wanted only money, 
not the destruction of life. See, then, your common 
criminality, and the righteous principle on which you 
will together be condemned, — the principle, which we 
have found in our statutes, and which will be found in 
the statute books of Heaven. You, and Herod, and 
Pilate, and Judas, and the highwayman, cause death 
simply by caring more for your own honor or paltry 
gain, than for the life of a fellow being. Murder, oc- 
casioned by recklessness of human life, will be your 
crime, no matter what your feelings may be. 

Let us hear him again : 

5. l If I do not sell, others wilV Carry that plea 



> 



INTOXICATING L I Q, U R S . 269 



efore the bar of your fellow mortal. Tell him that 
there are a great many murderers ; and if you did not 
commit murder, some one else would. Oh ! shame on 
the degeneracy of man ! —degeneracy of heart and stu- 
pidity of understanding, that he can for one moment 
ease a laboring conscience with so shallow a plea. 

6. l If respectable men leave it, bad men will take it 
up! Then the ministers of the gospel h" .d better become 
managers of our theatres and keepe as of gambling 
houses. Our governor had better take ail the murder- 
ing and highway robbing into his own hands, to have 
it done respectably, and to keep worse men from it 
How much consolation it must administer to that 
wretched wife, who sits shivering at midnight over the 
dying embers, to think that her husband is drinking at 
the store of a pious deacon, who has prayed over his 
barrels and bottles and measures ! How it mitigates 
the horror and the guilt of his awful death, to reflect 
that it was done by a respectable man ; and that he had 
a license from the civil authorities to do it ! Oh ! mock 
not the bleeding heart with such an apology. Oh ! 
venture not to the judgment seat with such a plea ! 
To this it has been replied, since the first delivery of 
this discourse. ' The laiodoes not forbid the sale of 
ardent spirits, while it does forbid murder. 1 This is 
an evasion, not an answer. We have not asserted that 
human laws made this traffic murder, but that it is in- 
trinsically so, and will be so construed by the law of 
God, and that your plea, — that you wanted it done re- 
spectably, — will appear infinitely foolish at the bar of 
God. 

Now, there is one plea which will be valid, if you can 
sustain it. It is, — that you were necessarily ignorant 

23* 



270 SERMON X . 

of the nature and tendency of alcohol when used as an 
ordinary drink. You must not only be ignorant, but 
necessarily so. If mere ignorance were a sufficient 
excuse, then men have only to remain ignorant of what 
is right and what is wrong ; and every thing they do is 
innocent, however destructive of the interests and hap- 
piness of others. This excuse has been long ago swept 
away by every criminal court. And it is only when 
ignorance is un ivoidable, that a person may do a wrong 
action without guilt. Let it then be understood, that 
whatever may have been the case in former days, the 
venders of alcohol can no longer plead necessary ignor- 
ance. For they may know the true nature and neces- 
sary effects of alcohol on the human system. 

It was often said, — < Why, very good men drank and 
sold ardent spirits ; were they all suicides and mur- 
derers?' This is a fair question, and should be fairly 
answered. The morality, or immorality, of any action 
is always the same in itself considered. Right and 
wrong are eternal and immutable distinctions. The 
moment in which two intelligent beings exist, there also 
exist natural relations between them. And out of these 
spring, naturally and necessarily, duties and obligations; 
and whenever to the natural are added artificial rela- 
tions, out of these spring new duties and obligations. 
Every action they then perform is either right or wrong, 
conformed or not conformed to a natural, eternal, un- 
changeable standard. This standard is not the result 
even of the Divine will, nor an object on which even 
Omnipotence can exert itself. Much less do right and 
wrong depend on the fickle opinions of men, on human 
legislation, public sentiments, or the customs of society. 
The very holiness of God is conformity to this standard ; 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 271 

it is not, first making a thing right, and then being con- 
formed. But God is holy in loving and choosing what 
is right. Every custom is then eternally right or wrong. 
That is — it was always wrong for men to be shortening 
their lives by drinking a poison ; just as wrong as it is 
now. It was always as wrong to capture the natives 
of Africa and sell them in a foreign country as it is 
now. It is no more really piracy, now that civilized 
nations have thus denominated it, than it was then. 
But the degree of personal guilt does depend on the 
degree of light which an individual, who sincerely de- 
sires to .know what is right and what is wrong may 
obtain. If the nature and essentia] effects of alcohol 
could not be known by our fathers, as they are known 
by us, then they were not so guilty. No one can be- 
lieve that it was any thing else than murder in an in- 
habitant of India to kill her child ; and yet no one can 
believe that she is as guilty, as a mother in Albany who 
should do the same thing. But, should we confer a 
favor on these heathen mothers by permitting them to 
remain in darkness? or is it philanthropy and duty to 
go and pour the light of God's eternal law upon their 
practices, and tell them distinctly, that it is murder? 
Will their civil and domestic condition be injured or 
improved by such a mission and such preaching ? 
'Why,' they reply, 'our mothers were many of them 
very good, and they did so. Were they guilty of mur- 
der ?' The only true reply is, and must be — they com- 
mitted murder, as they committed all the other crimes 
for which God condemns them. But the degree of their 
guilt depended on the knowledge they could have that 
it was wrong. 

To return, then, from our digression, I repeat : — to 



272 SERMON X. 

sell alcohol as a drink, is now murder in the sight of 
God, without any mitigation ; and that, for two reasons : 
because alcohol' kills, and because this may be known 
to be its natural effect. If any are ignorant, their ig- 
norance is voluntary. They love the darkness more 
than the light, and they will not come to the light lest 
their deeds be reproved. Nor would I make so tre- 
mendous a charge against the traffickers without proof. 
You will not require me to give an extended proof, 
that alcohol is a poison and an enemy of human life. 
I speak of that substance which Segalas, an eminent 
French physiologist introduced into the vein of a dog, 
and he instantly dropped down dead. I speak of that 
substance, of which, if the speaker should drink that 
tumbler full, he would probably in ten minutes gasp in 
the agonies of death. You know the substance : it is 
poison — sheer, unnutritive, fiery poison. This is the 
first fact on which this awful charge is founded. The 
second is- — that the distiller, the wholesale merchant, 
the grocer, the tavern-keeper, may know its nature and 
effect. If that is true, O my fellow-citizens ! tremble. 
For, He cometh, He cometb to the judgment. And 
when inquisition is made for blood, if you cannot fly 
behind this last refuge of involuntary ignorance, your 
case is hopeless. Let us, then, see how the matter 
stands. Every drinker and vender of alcohol in this 
city may know that it kills — from two sources : — 

1. From physicians^ who declares that this is its 
natural and necessary effect, as truly as it is of fire to 
consume ; that it is no more adapted to do man good 
than henbane is. Now, suppose the man who dropped 
down and died just after leaving a grocery, had been 
last at yours. A coroner's jury pronounce it death 






INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 273 

caused by intoxication. You are arraigned for mur- 
der; one of those physicians who has already pro- 
nounced alcohol a poison, is subpoenaed as a witness. 
He is ordered to examine the corpse. He comes into 
court and says, — ' The death was manifestly caused 
by the alcohol that he had just drunk.' The court 
then ask ; ' Is alcohol a poison V l It has always been 
so ranked by medical chemists. I have analyzed it, 
and I pronounce it a poison.' Other witnesses are 
called in to show that you administered that poison. I 
ask then, on what principle will an honest jury hesi- 
tate and refuse to pronounce you guilty; when the 
court shall have instructed them that you might have 
known the nature of the article and its natural effects, 
from the immense number and variety of the publi- 
cations, sermons and addresses which repeat the testi- 
mony of the physician ? From this city alone millions 
are issued every year. This is precisely one of that 
class of cases in which the testimony of the physician 
turns the scale in the decisions of the jury, even where 
life and death are at issue. But these very men now 
tell you, that you are dealing out poison. Will God 
then hold you guiltless, even if man approve your 
course ? 

But there is still another source of knowledge, which 
leaves you yet more inexcusable : — it is, your own ob- 
servation, confirmed by that of men of every class. 
Not as in the former case, the tracing internally its 
fiery track over one tissue of the body after another, 
and from one channel of life to another; but its visible, 
external effects ; effects so manifest, any child eight 
years old can trace them to their cause ; effects to 
which you can get testimony until no house could hold 



274 SERMON X. 

the statements which might be written. Ask your little 
child, as he sees your neighbor, a stout, strong man, 
reeling out of your store, c What ails that man V 
1 Why, father ! he is drunk ; you gave him something 
from that decanter, and that makes him stagger so.' 
Never were cause and effect more manifestly connected. 
Its first visible influence is on the muscles. And if the 
man were a giant, this serpent would coil around him, 
and wrap his iron sinews in its fiery embrace until, 
from very infantile weakness, his head would be too 
heavy for the muscles of the neck, the hands too 
weighty for the muscles of the arm, the body too heavy 
for the knees ; and then they bend, and reel and stag- 
ger, until he presses to the earth, just as closely as 
a log. 

This is but the beginning of the work of death. I 
hope I shall not exaggerate in any thing. In a case 
where the truth is so awful, it would be both foolish 
and sinful to state any thing but facts to produce the 
deepest impression. 

The next thing which you cannot fail to observe is, 
that the brain is strongly and injuriously affected. The 
brain is the most delicate and mysterious part of the 
human body : its state may generally be known by the 
state of the mind. Look then at the attack you have 
made on this vital organ. If your customer be De- 
mosthenes, whose eloquence, one hour before, has made 
a continent tremble ; look at him now as your poison 
begins to seize the brain. See his drivelling; mark 
his eye.— Its lightning-flash is gone. Hear his speech ; 
blasphemous, obscene, idiotic ! Oh ! where is his 
mind ? Ask not — the poison of Arabia is maddening 
his brain. But I cannot, now, follow the history of 



! 



INTOXICATING LIQ.UORS. 275 

those signals, which nature, tortured, scorched and mad- 
dened in every vital organ,, successively holds out. The 
eye, the color of the face, its muscles, the nose, the tremb- 
ling hand, plead eloquently, that you would stop your 
victorious attack on every citadel of life. The loss of ap- 
petite, — indigestion, — soon proclaims that another vital 
organ, — the liver, — is yielding to the universal con- 
queror whom you have sent to wage this unrelenting 
warfare. 

Our city and New- York taught us some impressive 
lessons on this subject, during the prevalence of the 
cholera. One in sixty of our alcohol-drinking popu- 
lation died ; while only one in twenty- five hundred of 
the members of our temperance-societies died by it. In 
New- York, it is said, that of the six hundred taken to 
Park Hospital, scarcely any died who had drank no 
ardent spirits for two years. It was remarked by an 
intelligent observer, that if it had not been for the sale 
and use of ardent spirits, there would not have been 
cholera enough to suspend business for a single day. 

Did you ever see a case of delirium tremens ? — 
Did you not think then that alcohol was a poison? 
Did you hear the scream, the maniac-scream? — did 
you see the poor wretch trying to drive away the devils 
with which his distracted fancy was filling the air ? — 
did you see him try to wipe off the filthy snakes which 
he saw crawling all over his body ? Did you not think 
then that alcohol was a poison? In the year 1833, 
Mr. Hogan tells us, that in our jail alone, from the rum 
sold in this city, there were at least one hundred cases 
of delirium tremens. The only death there in the 
year, was that of a woman by this horrid disease. 

It has been observed by our judges, police magis- 



276 SERMON X. 

trates and jailers, that scarcely a case of murder occurs 
in this country, but under the influence of alcohol. 
You probably read the account of that father, who 
after spending the evening in a scene of groveling dis- 
sipation and frantic riot, was transformed into an in- 
furiated demon ; went home ; found his wife and chil- 
dren in bed ; took the axe and knocked them all in 
the head, like so many brutes ; then cut his own throat, 
and madly hurried to tell his Judge, that for a paltry 
pittance, his neighbor gave him the bowl of madness, 
that turned his brain, and he rushed to murder, to 
death, to hell. Do I exaggerate ? God forbid. Only 
go to the files of newspapers in our city for ten years, 
and, if you cannot learn that alcohol is a poison, then 
you must either plead idiocy, or stand convicted of 
voluntary ignorance. 

Where would you find alcohol if he were a real per- 
son ? Is there a scene of rioting, profaneness, debauch- 
ery — is there a place of sinful amusement, a place 
where the mind is exhibited in its utmost depravity, in 
which its influence is not predominant ? Is there a 
hovel of wretchedness and want, in which you may 
not point to the badges of misery ; and say, ' These 
are the natural fruits of this tree ?' It poisons the mind 
as well as the body. The horrid murders recently 
committed on the Baltimore rail-road can be traced en- 
tirely to the influence of the whiskey drank by the la- 
borers in immense quantities. After the laborers there 
became accustomed to the frequent use of it from the 
hands of the contractors, they became indolent, and at 
pay-day were cut down in their wages. They vowed 
revenge, and such a scene of turbulence and blood as 
was enacted on the Baltimore and Washington rail- 



INTOXICATING LldUORS. 277 

road, has been seldom seen in this country. The ter- 
rified inhabitants were seen flying from their houses in 
utter dismay. And it seems as if God permitted this 
occurrence in order to punish those contractors, and to 
lift the light so high and glaring on this point, that 
none could any longer sin ignorantly. 

Alcohol is poison. No fact in human science is 
established by evidence of a more certain kind, and of 
greater variety, than this — that alcohol is a poison. Its 
general properties and its hidden effects on the body 
are attested by hundreds of scientific men. Its external, 
obvious effects, are attested by the senses of millions. 
These effects are not rare and occasional, but regular 
and necessary. The drunkard's woes and premature 
death are entirely unnatural, and the direct and legiti- 
mate result of drinking a poison. Where is, then, the 
ground of an apology to any one in this country who 
has eyes or ears — that he was ignorant of the nature 
and effects of ardent spirits ? We see none. Let us 
then repeat the doctrine of our discourse : — 

To use alcohol as an ordinary drink, is suicide. 
To make, give, or sell it to be so used, is murder, by 
Heaven's law, even if that law be interpreted by the 
principles adopted in human legislation. 

But the crime of the spirit- vender has yet another 
aggravation. It not only is murder, but is, in all its 
bearings, the most cruel form of murder ever yet de- 
vised by Satanic cunning and malice. It is different 
from any form of murder which highwaymen or pirates 
ever adopt. Contrast a death by alcohol with one 
caused by a pistol-shot. 

Mark— 

1. The protracted bodily suffering. You boast that 
34 



278 SERMON X . 

your customers live a great while. Yes, but how do 
they live? Hours, months, years in protracted disease 
that first preys on one delicate fibre, and then on 
another. Who hath woes ? The drinker of your slow 
poison. 

A pistol-shot drives through the heart, and one or 
two convulsive struggles finish the sufferings of earth. 

2. There are protracted shame, fear, convictions, 
and struggles. You say, — ' My customers are free 
agents. I do not force them to drink.' Yes, they are 
free, and that makes yonr species of murder so cruel. 
Give it to a swine, and he is not called to render ac- 
count for the sin of drunkenness, or any crimes result- 
ing from it. But you give it to a man ; a free account- 
able being. His relations to God and to society are 
various and complicated. He is a subject of God's 
moral government, an object of redeeming mercy's 
tenderest regard. He is a son, brother, citizen, friend, 
father. Every glass, that you hand out, vibrates along 
the most delicate chord, jars in harsh discord amid 
some of the sweetest music of life, disturbs its most im- 
portant harmonies, and runs in its influence farther^ in 
extent and duration, than you have yet conceived. If 
a robber had pierced a man through with a sword, he 
might be for weeks writhing in bodily pain ; but his 
mind would not be agonized with shame. He is wil- 
ling that his friends should come and see him. The 
victims of your cruelty, all the way down through the 
long, slow process of death, lose the cheerful openness 
of virtue. They burn with shame as with an inward 
fire. The society of the good used to make them 
happy ; but now it renders them wretched. The 
gradual loss of character comes, in the detail, like the 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 279 

daily sting of a scorpion. Where the smile of appro- 
bation and the salutation of respect were once re- 
ceived, the cold indifference of neglect, or the more 
rough-edged sneer of contempt, cuts across every sen- 
sibility of the man whom you are so slowly mur- 
dering. 

I have spoken of the drunkard's fears. They am 
peculiar to himself, the. peculiar product of your slow 
poison. I know his first launch is into the outer circle 
of the maelstrom. The day smiles sweetly, the waters 
play harmlessly around his little bark. It is easy to 
float. It requires no oar, no helm. There is motion 
without effort or care. The circle sweeps with so large 
a diameter, it seems like a straight line. But ah ! the 
delusion ! It is the curve of death. Each successive 
sweep is swifter and in a diminished circle. But at 
first it lulls to a sweet feeling of security. This gen- 
erally continues, until it is too late to put back the frail 
bark ; and, as it drives over the first inward declivities 
on the edge of the awful tunnel, then begin to break 
upon the ear a terrific roar of the mighty waters rush- 
ing through their subterranean outlet. Can you tell 5 
dealer in poison ! — can you tell what images of terror, 
what unearthly sounds of horror are racking the soul 
of your customer while you are quietly resting on your 
pillow? Remember, that it is the angelic nature of 
man rushing to ruin. Oh! these are, — these must be 
terrors, that baffle description. Remember, that, as he 
looks down the yawning abyss, and hears without the 
roaring of a thousand thunders, within he is goaded 
with the last appeals of a guilt-oppressd conscience. 
It will not suffer the suicidal plunge until it has once 
more asserted the rights of God, and told the terrors of 



280 SERMON X. 

a coming judgment. Remember, that thirty thousand 
every year are swallowed in this vortex. See how 
thickly they cover the dark waters. See the security 
and hilarity of the nearest circle. Hear the blas- 
phemies and babblings that rise above the roar of 
waves. But, Oh ! look on the inner circles. See the 
sons of promise there. See how richly some of their 
barks are freighted with the happiness of others. Mark 
how they are now starting from their dreams. Listen 
to the cry of despair ; mark the fitful, convulsive, un- 
availing struggles as they try to press from destruction. 
O the struggles, the deadly struggles of a man, who 
feels himself really becoming a drunkard, and that in 
view of all it involves ! Venders and makers of alco- 
hol ! you murder slowly. So do the North American 
savages. They do not aim to secure death alone. 
They lengthen life, where instant death would be 
mercy. They put off the day and hour of actual 
death, to fill up the interval with torments. You do 
the same, not intentionally, but as actually and as 
fatally to the wretched victims as if it were so. 

And again, — 

3. It sends men to a certain and eternal hell. If 
infidelity says, 'That is harsh and presumptuous,' 1 
place my feet on the pedestal of truth, the word of God. 
" No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God." Al- 
cohol, I say from the Bible, fits men for hell, slowly, 
but surely, and then leaves it not to any other agent, 
but carries them to the verge of the precipice, and, to 
crown all its career of cruelty and murder, plunges 
them into a burning eternal damnation. I mean, — the 
alcohol- vender does. And between this fact and sheer 
infidelity, there is no middle ground of belief. You 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 281 

may close your eyes and ears against it ; but it is true 
as the word of God. 

But this" species of murder has yet a wider reach of 
cruelty. Other kinds may distress a large circle of re- 
spectable friends. But they strike one painful blow } 
and leave the soothing hand of time to heal the wound. 
This lashes and pierces with scorpion-sting, for months 
and years, and adds continually another and a keener 
point, to keep innocent hearts bleeding. I allude to the 
painful and protracted anxiety of friends, when the 
doubtful point begins to be agitated — l is he becoming 
a drunkard V None, but they who feel it, can tell how 
that agitation turns every sweet fountain of earthly en- 
joyment into wormwood and gall. I allude to the 
anxiety, which is started again in their minds, when 
one experiment after another is ingeniously made to 
keep the self-destroyer from the place of murder, and 
from the allurements of the alcohol-vender. For it is 
upon your place of traffic that they now look with as 
much horror, as you would upon the spot where the 
wife of your bosom was murdered. Decorate them as 
you please. These are the associations with which the 
place of your daily business is connected in the minds 
of those who love your customers. I might charge you 
still farther in summing up before a jury entertaining 
the common sentiments of justice and humanity. The 
disgrace of numerous friends, the wretchedness of un- 
pitied, unrelieved poverty, the destruction of kindly 
feelings, — all mark the success of your business. Un- 
der your influence, the father loses the character of 
counsellor, supporter, companion, patriarch, priest, and 
becomes the tormentor, the burden, the curse of those 
he has sworn to love and bless. He exerts but one 
24* 



282 SERMON X. 

kind of influence steadily on his children ; and that is. 
to train them to sin and misery. 

But I stop. The detail need be carried no farther. 
If the traffic in alcohol is murder, and that of the most 
cruel kind : we may and ought to inquire. Who will 
be found to partake of its guilt, remotely or directly ? 

WHO IS GUILTY? 

If the Temperance societies should at once perfectly 
accomplish the objects of their efforts, there would be 
saved to this nation, millions of dollars annually; thirty 
thousand lives would be saved and added to the strength 
and the happiness of this nation ; and wretchedness 
whose amount cannot be measured, would be prevented. 
If they entirely fail during this year, then the river of 
burning lava will roll on its fiery course. On its scorch- 
ing bosom will still be seen, writhing in protracted ago- 
nies, three hundred thousand human beings made for 
holiness and happiness. Thirty or forty thousand will 
plunge into endless misery this year; and a larger 
number in the next. And as these murdered souls rise 
to the bar of God, he will make inquisition for blood. 
On whose hands will it be found? Remember the 
principle of criminal law taken from the law of God. 
If an ox was known to be dangerous, and by being 
turned loose, destroyed life, the owner, so exposing the 
life of others, was made to answer for it with his own. 
Let us go then to the fountain-head. Whence flows 
the river of death ? Does it come, like the beautiful 
Hudson, from fountains which God has made ? No ; 
the little rivulets which swell its tide, are made by man. 
God never made a distillery. And he never made al- 
cohol, but in the process of vegetable destruction. It is 
the product of the process of fermentation. It is found 



INTOXICATING LlftUORS. 283 

naturally in the vessels of no living, healthful plant or 
animal. And when artificially introduced there, it 
proves its origin. Begotten by the process of death, it 
tends directly and powerfully to death. Why do not 
the owners of distilleries close them ? Because the love 
of money is stronger in them than shame, humanity, or 
conscience. Yea, they will grasp it, though they know 
it to be the price of tears and blood, though it be wrung 
from the hard earnings of the poor, and is the last de- 
pendence of a famishing family ; provided it comes to 
them through second hands, and they see not the misery 
they cause. Let us go along this river of death, and 
see the various agencies which have a guilty connec- 
tion with it. 

1. The Distiller, Importer \ and Tender. They keep 
this fountain full, and open the channels through which 
it may flow. Every maker and vender must admit that 
drunkenness is a horrible evil. But how much drunk- 
enness is there throughout these states ? A gentleman 
in this state, has caused a thorough investigation to be 
made lately in three counties in a section of this state, 
which ranks high for morality. With a population of 
about 49,000, there are upwards of 21,000 who drink, 
" moderately," and about 1900 drunkards ; i. e. nearly 
one half are tipplers, or occasional drinkers, and one in 
26 is a drunkard. Apply that proportion to the whole 
Union, and we have 500,000 drunkards. Is this vice 
horrible in one man — what is it when accumulated and 
multiplied in half a million ? And who perpetrates this 
guilt and wretchedness ? Could it exist if you would 
all abandon your business, and other men have too 
much humanity and conscience to enter it ? 

But the maker replies : ' I do not force any one to drink ; 



'. 



284 SERMON X. 

I make it, and if men choose to kill themselves with it, 
I am no more responsible, than if I manufactured cor- 
rosive sublimate, and men chose to drink it.' Here 
believe is, at last, the most satisfactory reasoning to the 
manufacturer's mind; But it is only one of the speci- 
mens of sophistry by which men quiet a disturbed con- 
science, without doing themselves the justice to reflect 
upon it soberly, as in the sight of their final Judge. 
They make alcohol as a beverage ; they make it, 
knowing that it will be drank, and knowing that the 
appetite for it is the life of their business. They make 
it to be drank, just as truly as ever men make pistols 
for the destruction of life, or counterfeit money for cir- 
culation. If they make it for the arts ; why not make 
it in the form of pure alcohol, in which it is needed in 
the arts ; why color it for the eye and drug it for the 
taste ? The plea is insincere. If there be in the manu- 
facturer's heart a prayer, which never was framed into 
words, it is, — ' Let men get an increasing appetite for 
ardent spirits ; this I desire just as earnestly as I desire 
the comfort and respectability of myself and family.' 
And he doubtless often feels secure, because he sells to 
venders and not to drinkers. Just as secure is he from 
the piercing eye of Justice, and from her dreadful sen- 
tence, as is the maker of counterfeit money. He never 
cheats any person. He sells to men who know the 
nature of the article. If they choose to injure the com- 
munity, he, poor innocent man. cannot help it. He is 
merely making an honest livelihood by selling printed 
paper, which is one of God's good creatures. This 
apology has often satisfied the wholesale vender. But 
the difference is,— that you deal out death by the hogs- 
head, your neighbor by the gill. Your beams are laid 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 285 

in blood three stories high, his but one. The apology 
of the retailer we have sufficiently examined. We see, 
then, a flood of burning lava rolling down over a lovely 
country, laying every thing waste before it. The dis- 
tillery is the volcano, tended by the respectable distiller. 
The wholesale vender digs the larger channels, and the 
retailer carries it home over the lovely little garden spots 
where bloomed the sweetest plants of domestic happi- 
ness, and into the sanctuary of the living God, and 
around the very altars devoted to holiness. Yea, they 
have carried it up into the sacred desk ; and even there, 
the mighty have fallen. Who furnished it to the man, 
who, in this ward, last year, knocked another in the 
head and killed him ? Who furnished it to the Captain 
of the Rothsay Castle, when he madly drove his steam- 
boat on the shoals, and destroyed two hundred precious 
lives ? ' Oh !' exclaimed a man, who had made much 
money in the traffic, as he looked around from his store 
upon the once thrifty farmers, who had been brought 
to ruin by trading with him, — c Oh !' it is a horrible bu- 
siness.' I stand and look at a distillery ; at the hogs- 
head rolling into a wholesale store ; at the barrel, the 
jug, taken in by the retailer. I ask the physician ; — 
1 What is the nature of that substance, and its effects if 
men drink it V I ask the police magistrate, the judge, 
the man of observation, the wife. One clear loud voice 
answers ; ' Poison — poison — the deadliest, crudest poi- 
son.' It kills both body and soul, and creates all around 
it an atmosphere of death. Look at that decorated bar- 
room. Its gilding is the mask of the assassin. Look 
at that smiling bar-tender. Can he be so ignorant as 
not to know what a train of evils he is setting in motion? 
Has he not read, nor observed ? He has laughed at the 



386 SERMON X. 

temperance society. Has he prepared to answer his. 
final Judge? 

Do* I address a manufacturer, or vender, to-night? 
Have I invaded your rights ? Oh ! no, you are the 
invader. And this is but a feeble attempt to throw a 
wall of defence around the rights and happiness of com- 
munity. Do I appear to you harsh ? No. It cannot 
be ; for it is not in my heart. Believing fully the 
doctrine of this discourse, I must feel moral disappro- 
bation. But with it I feel anxiety and distress in pros- 
pect of your final account and retribution. Facts are 
stubborn things. And I am stating but a few of an 
innumerable class, and those, in a manner too feeble 
fully to exhibit the wrong that you are doing, and the 
miseries that you are inflicting. The poor unfortunate 
wretch, who bought your spirits, and committed murder 
under their influence, lies in prison, waiting the day of 
execution. But you are upheld and shielded by the law 
to make more murderers. O that day — that dreadful 
day, when even-handed justice will apportion different- 
ly from the awardings of imperfect man! There re- 
main for you but two alternatives. Go on and meet 
your Judge. We will use no other force against you 
than persuasion. Resist that ; die a rum- vender, and 
meet your customers at the bar of God. Or, repent 
and renounce your sin ; make all the reparation to God 
and man in your power, and apply to the mediation of 
the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness. 

Another class share in this guilt. 

2. Those who license the traffic. It is, surely, but a 
plain inference of common sense, that licensing this 
traffic in the present state of things, is licensing all the 
crime which results from it. In other words, our mu- 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS, 287 

nicipal officers and commissioners of excise license men 
to commit murder by poison ; to dishonor God and de- 
stroy man. What is the effect on the vender of every 
license you dispense? It shields his conscience from 
the perception of his guilt. It stands in the way of that 
holy, searching, murder-forbidding law of God, which 
would drive him to despair or repentance. Rum- 
venders want generally no better shield against the law 
of God, than the license which they have received from 
a civil officer, and for which they have paid. It pre- 
vents public sentiment, however powerful, from reaching 
them. Why, they say, ' These are fanatics, that would 
interfere with our lawful business.' Yes, you make it 
lawful for them to continue and multiply the murder- 
ous traffic. The license stands right in the way of one 
of the noblest reformations of the age ; one which, most 
deeply of all, involves the best interests of our country. 
Would you believe that you were doing right, even if 
appointed for that purpose by the governor, to license 
piracy, counterfeiting, or murder by arsenic ? If not, 
where is the moral right of licensing murder by alco- 
hol? "Thou shalt not kill," neither as principal, nor 
as accessory. You say, — 1 1 am appointed to execute 
the law.' You ought not to accept an office which 
requires you to do a moral wrong. But the law does 
not require you to license a single individual. The 
law restrains you from doing it, unless you have evi- 
dence that the public good demands it in every indi- 
vidual case. If the licensing officer is under oath, and 
if he is required to obtain under oath, the declaration 
that the public good demands every rum-selling estab- 
lishment which is licensed, then I fearlessly assert that 
there is not only murder, but what God will consider 



288 SERMON X. 



perjury somewhere ; when, in a city like Albany, in 
every twelfth house rum is sold for the public good. 
Is the multitude of rookeries in our city, which contain 
a jug, bottle, and glass, where nothing but rum is sold, 
really licensed by men who have sworn only to consult 
the public accommodation in such licenses? Did I 
believe that our licensing officers were ignorant, I would 
appeal on a different ground. But they are not. They 
are men of sense and observation. And I am unable 
to account for their conduct in this matter, but by sup- 
posing that they dare not offend the many who are 
interested in the traffic. And if this be really so, I 
exhort them as honest men to resign their office. I say, 
as honest men. The public appoint them as guardians 
of the public welfare. But when a strong band of mur- 
derers rises up and threatens vengeance, they dare not 
meet them. Give us commanders that dare defend us. 
I would no more dare to license a man to sell ardent 
spirits in this city, than I would dare to be an ^accessory 
in any other way, to every crime committed under its 
influence. Those who do it, with their present light, 
violate the sixth commandment. 

Intimately connected with this, is the guilt of — 
3. Legislators. It is not out of my province, per- 
haps, now to remind this respected class of our citizens, 
that their station gives them influence, for the uses and 
practical results of which, God holds them responsible. 
They must pass another and purer ordeal than public 
sentiment/ We have no complaint to make of past 
legislation on this subject. It was manifestly designed 
for the public good; and has already outrun public 
sentiment. On the licensing officers rests the heaviest 
portion of this guilt. Men of very bad character are 



INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 289 

engaged in the traffic, contrary to law. Minors and 
apprentices are permitted to buy and drink without the 
consent of guardians, contrary to law. Bad conduct is 
permitted in these drinking places, notwithstanding the 
law has required recognisance and securities for keep- 
ing an orderly house. This the legislator has honestly 
tried to prevent. He has tried to prevent the common 
tippling in groceries, by requiring the vender to swear, 
that he keeps a tavern expressly for the accommodation 
of travellers. Nor should it be forgotten, that the 
existing laws were made in days of such darkness, that 
the best men did not hesitate to engage in the traffic. 

But a day of light has come. It is not boasting to 
say it — we have light on this subject, which imposes 
new duties on all classes. It is chemical light, phy- 
siological light, moral light. By its clear shining, we 
are enabled to see one portion of the community prey- 
ing upon the wealth, and health, and life of the other. 
We now see the injustice of raising a revenue from a 
business, which makes the non- vending part of com- 
munity pay, in the form of street begging, poor and 
criminal tax, more than twice the revenue without any 
pecuniary profit, but with incalculable moral loss. We 
now see, that in the very requirement of recognisances 
for good conduct, lies the admission of such a natural 
fraternity between the traffic and bad conduct, that they 
must require of him, what is required of no other mer- 
chant, that he does not, in the pursuit of his lawful 
business, allow that unlawful conduct which directly 
results from it. We see by the light of this day, that 
legislation of a more decisive character is required. It 

1S, TO MAKE THE TRAFFIC A CRIME BY LAW. 

And why cannot the traffic in certain specified forms 

25 



290 SERMON X. 

of alcohol to be drank on the premises be made a penal 
offence ? Because, it is said, so many respectable men 
would consider it an unconstitutional abridgment of 
their privileges of drinking in taverns and stores, that 
it would be intolerably offensive to one part, and cun- 
ningly evaded by the other. If this reasoning be valid, a 
Legislature had better never use any portion of its in- 
fluence to put down crime. If rum-selling be a crime, 
(and upon the truth of that position is based all the 
legitimacy of my conclusions and the propriety of my 
appeals,) then the legislators, as the constituted moral 
barrier between the state and those destructive vices 
which lay desolate its social blessings, are bound to lay 
their strongest hand on this crime. And so long as 
they do not, they are, in the eye of pure morality, ac- 
cessories to the murders and other crimes involved 
essentially in the traffic. Where is the moral difference 
between such a course and the suppression of lotteries ? 
They were once protected by law. But by the same 
power you have crushed them, and they can now live 
only by skulking and hanging out false signs. Look 
at your power. Stretch out your wand over the land 
like Moses, and the plague will be stayed; the foun- 
tains of blood dried up. 

In view of these truths, let me ask, what is the duty 
of the Church 7 Where should she be found on this 
subject ? Her place is in the fore-front of every moral 
reformation. Neither indolence nor cowardice befits 
her high vocation. The temperance-reformation is a 
holy enterprise. It was commenced under the influ- 
ence of the Bible, and its holy philanthropy, after the 
world had abandoned the hope of reform. It began in 
the Church. Devoted men of God gave it the first im- 









INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 291 

pulse. They discovered the grandest principle which 
ever rewarded the toil of philosophers — that total absti- 
nence would rid the world of its direst curse, its dead- 
liest plague, whose ravages were yearly widening. It 
was begun in prayer ; and I have been surprised that 
Christians could doubt the propriety of praying in the 
public meetings connected with this subject. Cease to 
associate prayer with it, let it swing off to the low 
grounds of expediency and political economy, and the 
cause inevitably runs down. We owe all our success 
to the smiles of God. Still and perpetually let the 
Church seek their continuance. The Church is bound 
by all her vows and professions, by her covenant obli- 
gations, by her duty to man and to the cause of virtue, 
to sustain every society which seeks to reform the com- 
munity by proper means. There are several ways by 
which she may act, in her appropriate sphere, in ac- 
complishing this work. 

1. By preaching. It is the duty of her ministers, 
to exhibit this subject in the light of the Bible and 
eternity. If it involved a mere question of political 
economy, affecting the national industry and wealth ; 
if it were a merely medical question of the healthful- 
ness or unhealthfulness of a certain substance, then it 
would not come specifically within the scope of the 
gospel preacher. But if the traffic in intoxicating li- 
quors, and their use as a beverage, are sins, and enor- 
mous sins ; if the souls of men are destroyed by this 
traffic ; if its success and extension is the overthrow 
of religion ; if the millennium cannot come while it 
nourishes ; then must the ministers of Christ sound 
the notes of alarm. They must give a clear and 
solemn exhibition of the guilt and the everlasting con- 



292 SERMON X. 

sequences connected with these practices. In fact, I 
see not how we may expect the discontinuance of a 
traffic in which so many are interested, unless the 
public mind is led to contemplate it strongly in its 
everlasting consequences to drinkers and venders. 

I know that we often hear remarks about going too 
fast for public sentiment. And I would, that there 
were as much time as we have now occupied to discuss 
that point in this connection. There is a plausible, ex- 
tensive and mischief- working error concerning it. Let 
me ask a question:— Should ministers in preaching, 
follow public sentiment, keep pace with it, or lead and 
reform it? If a minister tells the people what they 
knew before, he may refresh their memories ; but he 
cannot instruct them as a scribe who brings forth 
" things new and old." If he tells the people, that those 
things are wrong, which they knew to be wrong before 
he told them ; he will not offend them indeed, nor incur 
the charge of fanaticism. But will he do them any 
good ? If public sentiment is ignorant, who is to en- 
lighten it ? If it is wrong, who is to rectify it ? Is it 
not the very business of the prophets of the Lord, the 
teachers of morality and religion? Must they not 
show the people, that many things which they received 
from their fathers, and which are now fashionable and 
much admired, are nevertheless wicked ? Or must they 
always wait until the people find out from some other 
source what is right, and what wrong? So did not 
Enoch, nor Lot, nor Jeremiah, nor John, nor our Re- 
deemer. Public sentiment was altogether wrong on 
many important points in morals ; yes, and it was de- 
fended on those very points by reference to the Bible, 
but our Savior plainly instructed and solemnly rebuked 



INTOXICATING L I Q, U O R S . 293 

them. To be sure, it did not much increase his popu- 
larity. Nor could it, in the nature of the case. To 
oppose what is popular, must be unpopular. But his 
satisfaction was found in purifying the moral atmos- 
phere, and in saving millions then unborn from error, 
sin, and eternal ruin. If these principles be correct, 
we shall benefit you and the cause of temperance but 
little, if our discourses, snail-paced and cowardly, creep 
up only as high as public sentiment has reached. It 
is our duty to gaze into eternity, and borrow the light 
of that day, when the pleadings of custom and appetite 
and interest will not be heard; but truth — clear, simple, 
eternal truth: — will try every man's work and character, 
and fix his destiny. And if any reproaches must come 
on any class of men for advocating truth, let the leaders 
receive the first charge. 

The Church must sustain it by — 

2. Her practice. Theory, however correct, will not 
move the world, if those who advocate it contradict it 
by their practice. If the traffic is murder, how can 
church members continue to buy and sell it ? I only 
ask the conscience of the Church, and the common 
sense of the world. If the Church is the light of the 
world, what kind of light does that member hold out 
who sells alcohol? The light of an ignis fatuus, that 
shines to decoy and destroy. The point is settled, that 
so long as religion is respected, the world will not rise 
above the Church in morals. One professor of religion, 
who is consistent in other respects, by continuing to 
vend this poison, may quiet the conscience and harden 
the heart of fifty others in a city like this, and be an 
effectual shield to guard them from the truth. " Nei- 
25* 



294 SERMON X. 

ther be partaker of other men's sins." The Church is 
bound — 

3. To purify herself. Is it a murderous traffic ; or 
is it immoral even on any other ground ? then how can 
any Christian church admit to its bosom and welcome 
as a faithful, obedient disciple of Jesus Christ, one who 
continues in it ? As a pastor, I could not welcome such 
a person to our communion and Christian fellowship. 
This has been viewed as very high and untenable 
ground. I cannot see, one inch below it, a footing for 
consistency ; 1 shall be thankful, if it be there, to find 
it. If there be a vender in the bosom of your church, 
labor with him in love, pray for him, weep over him ; 
but O ! leave him not until he has abandoned the cruel, 
guilty traffic. If he does not, see where he will stand 
in the judgment day. Jesus Christ will arraign a poor 
trembling culprit, and say to him, " I was sick and in 
prison and hungry ; and your crime is, that you neither 
visited nor fed me." Lord, when ? he inquires. " In 
that poor creature, and that. Depart therefore accursed, 
into everlasting fire." Then he will turn to this ven- 
der, and say, " Come, blessed of my Father ; for I was 
sick and you visited, hungry and you fed me." When? 
he inquires. Jesus points to the same as before. What 
will the condemned wretch think of justice, when he 
recognises in those very beings those whom this church 
member had made drunkards ; whose drunkenness 
caused their sickness, imprisonment, and hunger? The 
crime of one was, he had not attended to them after 
they were sick and hungry. But the virtue of the 
other was, that he not only had not regarded their 
wretchedness after it existed, but was the grand volun- 



INTOXICATING L I Q, U O R S . 295 

tary, selfish author of it all, in the midst of light and 
rebukes ! Oh ! tell it not in Gath, that such are the 
hopes of Christians ! 

Vender of alcohol — go home, and write upon 'every 
vessel containing this substance, " Thou shalt not kill." 
And may the ringer of God write on your heart — " No 
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." 



SERMON XL 



VALEDICTORY SERMON, 



" I have no greater joy than to hear that my children 
walk in truth." — 3 John 4. 

John was a venerable Christian Pastor ; and when 
we use his language as expressive of our feelings, we 
do it with an humbling consciousness of un worthiness. 
Yet I think that I can adopt this language with much 
sincerity, concerning a church, over which I have 
watched, and wept, and prayed. The end of a pastor's 
labors and desires is, to lead his flock to walk in the 
truth. Desiring to condense my ministry, as it were, 
into one closing discourse, I adopt this sentence, with 
the hope that it will be brought afresh to your memo- 
ry, whenever you think of me, — « / have no greater 
joy than to hear that my children walk in truth? 

TO WALK IN TRUTH. 

It is a beautiful idea. Pilate once asked, " What is 
truth ?" Had he waited for an answer, he might have 
heard it sublimely said, " I am Truth !" Oh ! had 
he, for a moment, laid aside the judge and become the 
child, his dark and wandering soul might have seen 
the dawning of a new and eternal day. What is truth? 



298 SERMON XI. 

Things as they are, things as God apprehends them, 
facts, eternal realities. — Where is truth ? It used to be 
written all over the heavens. The earth was a rich 
volume, inscribed with truth on its ever varying pages. 
The heart of man was instinct with truth. But the 
heavens are now covered with sackcloth. The eye of 
love no longer reads the mystic characters written on 
every wonderful and beautiful object. The heart of 
man is perverted. He has come to hate the light and 
the truth. His philosophy, which can do nothing more 
than classify known facts, and conjecture unknown ex- 
istence, can never teach him. God must teach him in 
plain, unequivocal language. God must teach him 
authoritatively ; because the truth is often unwelcome. 
God must identify his instructions with signs and won- 
ders. Once this was not necessary. Then the heart 
of man was true to the voice of God. It then needed 
no stupendous miracle to say to man — this is your 
Father and your God : hear him. But now the mes- 
sage must come from him, accompanied by strong and 
indisputable credentials. Where is truth ? In Jesus ; — 
" I am the way, and the truth, and the life." It is in 
Jesus and his word. " Art thou a king then ?" asked 
Pilate. " To this end was I born, and for this cause 
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto 
the truth" " No man hath seen God," said this great 
witness, « at any time ;" no philosopher, no son of 
science, no student of the stars, no deep observer of man. 
These have boasted of light, but they have groped in 
darkness. They have not seen God. His character, 
and his government, and his purposes, they have not 
discovered. O ! my children ! if I were leaving you to 
the cold instructions of philosophy and science, my 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 299 

heart would sink within me. I should not expect to 
meet you forgiven, sanctified, glorified, in the land of 
spirits. But ye have heard the voice of the only be- 
gotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. And 
his word is quick and powerful. You have heard it in 
your grave of sin ; it has quickened you into life spirit- 
ual, and will raise you by a second resurrection, to life 
eternal. 

Let me explain the text. John was the honored in- 
strument of converting many from the error of their 
ways. He thus became their spiritual instructor. In 
this relation, he uses the language of these epistles, and 
calls them, children ; some of them, perhaps, his seniors 
in age. There were two classes of error to which he 
saw them exposed ; — the errors of religion and those of 
irreligion ; the one consisting in the perversions of the 
Scriptures, and the other in an utter disregard of them 
as untrue or unimportant. The world has its errors, 
and the Church has hers. The holy and benevolent 
anxiety of this patriarch was, that his children should 
shun them both, and walk in the truth ; that their minds 
should be enlightened, their hearts animated, and their 
steps directed by the truth. In his absence, in his ban- 
ishment, nothing could cheer his heart but to hear this 
concerning them. They must walk in truth. 

Is the Bible unkindly severe ? is it unjust, and does 
it aim to make us unsocial, when it says, " The whole 
world lieth in wickedness ;" — " the friendship of the 
world is enmity with God?"— meaning by the world, 
the uncontroverted. Is it unkind and unjust when it 
cautions Christians against their influence, because they 
are deceived and deluded ? " The god of this world 
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not." But 



300 SERMON XI. 

have not Christians escaped beyond the circle of that 
influence ? Not so long as they are social beings, with 
an imperfect character, surrounded by unbelieving 
friends. The world is in error, deep, practical, de- 
structive error. With some it is an error of 'theory. 
With all it is an error of the heart. It is painful to see 
them walking in the deceitfulness of their own imagin- 
ings, to be amused, to be cheered and flattered, until 
they awake amid the disappointments of another world. 
The Church must see that the world is in darkness 
and error, and must show them their path. And it is 
the more needful to caution you on this point, because 
the most dangerous errors of worldly men are not put 
in the form of distinct propositions ; but they come in- 
sidiously and powerfully instilled into your very heart, 
through every channel of social feeling. — The errors 
of the world come commended and palliated by the 
fascinations of wealth, rank, talent, refinement, station 
and friendship. You do not hear them proclaim, there 
is no God, no heaven, no hell ; but it is proclaimed in 
every plan, every sentence, every tone, every step. I 
wish to be understood : there is a powerful and insidi- 
ous influence from the world, which will induce you 
to walk by sight, and not by faith, unless greatly watch- 
ful. I will mention some of their errors. 

I. They are in fatal error on the subject of Happi- 
ness. 

No reference is here made to their theories; but I 
speak of those practical views which control their 
hearts and conduct. This point admits of illustration. 

1. They seek the transient gratifications of a day, 
because they esteem them more important than their 
everlasting welfare in an immortal state. Show me 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 301 

two men who act as if they had immortal souls one 
hour after they have left the worship of God ; and I 
will show you ten who act as if man's interest were 
concentrated here. They do not walk in truth. For 
it is true that we are immortal— it is true that the in- 
terests of time are as a feather in the scale against the 
vast interests of our ever-enduring souls. It is true, 
that present happiness is a cheap sacrifice if its abandon- 
ment be connected with the blessings of eternity. Yes, 
the world, the intelligent world, the learned, the mighty, 
the high, the low, the bond and free, despise the crown, 
the harp, the song, the society, the joy of heaven, be- 
cause the pursuit of them would interfere with some 
fleeting, selfish duty. It is true, that the world shrink 
from the pain, the shame of a day ; but they rush into 
the shame and agony of eternal damnation. — Here is 
error and delusion, just as ruinous as avowed infidelity. 
It is sympathy with these errors, and falling in with 
this current, that cause the distressing- backslidings in 
the Church. It is error which you can scarcely com- 
bat with reason ; for none defend it. But this only 
makes it the more dangerous. To walk in truth, is to 
walk on earth in the light of heaven, to be directed 
through time's darkness by the beams of eternal day. 

2. Another mistake about Happiness is, — They 
know not in xohat it consists. 

Happiness is found in the favor of God — misery in 
his frown. The world deny it. They seek happi- 
ness in the smiles of popular favor. They chase the 
approbation of erring man, and turn away from the 
smile of God. They dread the contempt, and the wrath 
of man. But they have no fear of God's indignation, 
no dread of his contempt. This is not truth, my 

26 



302 SERMON XI. 

fellow-men ! This is not regarding things as they are. 
And one hour of bliss under the smile of God before 
his throne, or of agony beneath his executed curse 
would give a demonstration such as words cannot 
furnish. There is a luxury in the tears of penitence ; 
there is peace and joy in believing. Sometimes it is 
a foretaste of heaven to be in a social circle of pray- 
ing friends. But the world knows nothing, practically 
believes nothing, of this. My sorrow will be, when I 
hear that my children come under this influence ; my 
joy will be enlarged when I hear that they walk in 
truth ; that they are not looking for happiness where 
the world seek it ; for I shall know, that, if they do, they 
are sowing the wind, and must reap the whirlwind. 
Truth, and truth alone, will endure the test of time. 
For a season^ it may seem to the superficial observer 
that the world is right ; but the magic spell must be 
broken ; the frost-work must melt away. i 

3. The world overrate Happiness. 

There is something more important than present 
happiness. It is character — not reputation, but char- 
acter ; and there is no excellence of character but holi- 
ness. Believe it; — it is more important that you be 
holy, than that you be happy ; or rather, since holiness 
ensures happiness, I would say, — it is more important 
that you deny yourself, " in order to obtain perfect holi- 
ness, than that, you have any degree of present happi- 
ness. It is not according to truth, to live in such a 
contracted sphere of selfish desires and grovelling 
motives as actuate a wordly heart. Man was made for 
virtue and benevolence. He is placed and preserved 
here to train himself for heaven, under the sweet in- 
fluences of the gospel and grace of Jesus Christ. 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 303 

II. Another error of the luorld is, — They underrate 
excellence. 

Their admiration is carried away with superficial 
and even unholy traits of character in man. But the 
glorious excellence of God — the transcendent loveli- 
ness of Jesus Christ, they do not value ; and where 
some faint reflection of the beams of that loveliness is 
seen in the regenerated, they do not admire it. But 
here is truth. God is amiable and glorious — the vision 
of Jesus' charms is ravishing. Were you out of this 
dark, smoky, sin-blinded world, were you among the 
sons of light, the tall hierarchies of heaven, had you 
wings to soar and mount on high, you would realize 
it. Bat the world walketh in a vain show. 

III. They adopt false principles. 

I will select but one of these for illustration ; what 
is popular is right — what is unpopular is wrong. — It is 
a doctrine, which would for ever confirm the empire 
of the arch deceiver over mankind. It is the doctrine, 
by which Luther was met, and by which he was ranked 
an ultraist. It met Jesus Christ in his labors as a re- 
former. He was ahead of public sentiment. His doc- 
trine was unpopular, therefore it was wrong ; its pro- 
mulgation agitated the community and drew down the 
indignation of the great conductors of public senti- 
ment ; therefore it was wrong. This is not truth, and 
may the Church never walk in it. 

There are errors in the Church too ; I do not mean 
those fundamental heresies which sap the very vital 
principle of religion : but I refer to errors which seri- 
ously retard the progress of personal piety, and enervate 
the arm of her power. There may yet come in among 
you those who will bring damnable heresies. But as 



304 SERMON XI. 

I do not see from what quarter the attack will arise, nor 
in what form the enemy will come, that must be com- 
mitted to the Great Shepherd. 

The practical errors of the Church to which I refer, 
are — 

1. Extravagant views of human depravity and 
inability. 

By these, man has been turned into a machine, and 
his responsibility virtually denied, and his sense of obli- 
gation paralyzed. On this subject it may suffice now 
to say, that the Bible and human consciousness corres- 
pond. The Bible exhibits man as deeply depraved, 
and yet as totally inexcusable for his past and present 
wickedness, and fully responsible to do his duty im- 
mediately and for ever. To this the consciousness 
and the observation of mankind respond. The heart 
of man is depraved. There is no question of its deep 
depravity. But the depravity of his heart has not 
taken away his power to do what God now requires 
of him - 7 else the foundations of responsibility are de- 
stroyed, and man would only have to do wrong to 
make it impossible that he should be any longer under 
obligations to do right. In the language of the Pres- 
byterian Confession of Faith : " God hath endued the 
will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither 
forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature, deter- 
mined to good or evil." And to fortify this senti- 
ment, their well-chosen proof-text is the address of 
Joshua to the Israelities — « I call heaven and earth to 
record this day against you, that I have set before you 
life and death, blessing and cursing ; therefore choose 
life, that both thou and thy seed may live." The fall 
perverted, but did not destroy the free agency of man ; 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 305 

perverted the use of his powers in action, but did not 
destroy the existence of those powers which distinguish 
man as a subject of moral government, from animals, 
and which lie at the foundation of all obligation. 

It is a truth, then, which you must hold, if you 
would vindicate the justice of Jehovah's government, 
that he exacts of his creatures that which they have 
the native powers to perform, while there is such an 
utter, certain, and desperate aversion of disposition 
and will to it, as to make the interference and con- 
stant agency of the Holy Spirit indispensable. Thus 
is the justice of God vindicated, while the pride and 
self-sufficiency of man are brought low, and the Church 
brought to feel the need of the Spirit's agency. 

2. The Church entertain extravagant views of the 
sovereignty of God. 

There is a strong inclination to refer the religious 
interests of man to God, in a way which would appear 
to them perfectly absurd, if applied to the common 
affairs of life. It is true in the spiritual world, that 
Paul may plant and Apollos water, but God must give 
the increase. But it is equally true in the natural 
world. Now the error we speak of, is — to omit the 
most earnest and skilful employment of means adapted 
to the end, in the salvation of the soul, because we 
depend on God for success. So did not Paul, the 
unwearied missionary. - The error is, — to rest satisfied 
when the Church is cold, and sinners are going care- 
lessly to perdition ; and to attribute it to the sovereignty 
and the purposes of God. That is practical heresy, 
which makes the Church weak in her opposition to 
the prince of darkness. This error shows itself in the 
manner of directing sinners. They are often told, 
26* 



306 SERMON XI. 

not to do what God requires them to do, but to do 
something else in order to obtain the power to do what 
God requires. It is supposed that the sinner has power 
to pray acceptably without the Spirit, to plead without 
faith, without repentance, with a proud, selfish, unsub- 
dued heart, and to plead successfully for the Holy 
Spirit ; but that he has no power to repent. This, my 
brethren ! is neither rational nor scriptural. So did not 
Paul, nor Peter. Point me to the place where they 
urged an inquiring sinner to pray in impenitence and 
unbelief for grace to enable him to repent ; where did 
they not press the mind directly to the cross, and urge 
the rebel child to fly with penitential sorrow to his 
father's feet to obtain forgiveness— 

"And I consent you take it for your text, — 
Your only one, — till sides and benches fail." 

This error has still another pernicious form. It is in 
making men very zealous about the Spirit's agency ; 
but not warning them, nor rousing their hearts to the 
exercise of frequent and fervent prayer. Now it is 
true, that we are dependent on the Spirit for spiritual 
life. It is true, that the moral waste around us will 
never bud and blossom as the rose, unless the " south 
wind" blow upon it. But it is just as true, that the 
mere belief of that, neither honors nor obtains the in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit. It is prayer, secret and 
social, fervent, faithful and frequent, that must obtain 
them for self and others. To say nothing of secret 
prayer, how often ought the Church to be assembled 
in her public and social character to pray for the Holy 
Spirit, in order to put becoming honor upon his blessed 
office 1 Let the eight days' prayer-meeting of the apos- 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 307 

ties give us some general direction, if not definite model. 
Prayer, sincere, humble and fervent, honors the person 
and office of the Eternal Spirit. 

3. The duty of the Church concerning the improve- 
ment of public morals. 

The Church of Christ and her ministers are bound 
to be the leaders of public opinion in all questions of 
morality. I admit that Christians and ministers have 
the entire right of examining every proposed improve- 
ment in public morals, and likewise the means of 
affecting that improvement. That is, they are account- 
able to God, and not to man, for their conclusions on 
these points ; and it is not fair uniformly to make these 
opinions tests of their piety or their infidelity. But 
with these concessions, I would distinctly assert that 
the business, the duty, of the Church and her ministry 
is, to rectify a false and depraved public sentiment. It 
is the business of the ministry to take for granted, that 
a world lying in darkness and wickedness has a wrong 
standard of morality, that the popular customs and 
maxims of society stand in direct hostility to the law 
and will of God, then to point out to the world how 
and wherein it is thus wrong, and to urge it, by all the 
tremendous sanctions of God's word, to abandon sin, and 
seek forgiveness. So Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel 
and Ezekiel understood their commissions. So did 
John the Baptist. So did Jesus Christ and each of his 
apostles. 

Strange that it should be a question, whether or not 
we should oppose actual and popular sins just as fast 
as they are discovered ! Why, every motive of love to 
God and benevolence to man urges it. And yet a large 
number of pious men tremble, when we agitate a wicked 



308 SERMON XI. 

world, by urging it to abandon some fashionable and 
deep-rooted sins. To me it is passing strange, for in- 
stance that, it should be thought fanatical or inexpe- 
dient in us, to declare the system of domestic slavery, 
as sanctioned by lav/ and carried out in practice in 
our southern States, to be a high crime against God 
and man. Sometimes they tell us that it is of no use 
to agitate it in the North ; we should go to the South. 
Then, we reply, our action at best is harmless. But 
again they tell us, that it will rend the Union. My 
brethren ! I wish I had the time now to examine this 
point with you by the Bible, and in the light of the 
great day of accounts* I have_ no fear, that Jesus 
Christ will then reproach me for proclaiming it a crime 
to treat immortal mind as the property of man, a mere 
machine to work for the pecuniary benefit of another. 
If there is not blood staining our nation in this mat- 
ter, and if it is not the duty of Christian ministers 
to call the nation to repent and put away the sin. 
then I must confess that I have mistaken the whole 
design and commission of God's ambassadors. But 
I shall have occasion again to refer to the subject 
of ministerial prudence; — a very important qualifica- 
tion in its place, but a very hurtful one when unduly 
exercised. 

It would now remain to describe to you the truths 
to be believed and practised. But for this I refer you 
to the Confession* read this day in your presence, and 
to all my past ministry. I have endeavored to give 
you a comprehensive, distinct, and minute view of the 



* Referring to the confession subscribed by the members admitted on 
that day. 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 309 

truths revealed for your salvation. I have consciously- 
withheld no portion from you. The character, the 
government, the providence, the purposes of God — the 
divine and human character, the work, and the offices 
of Jesus Christ — the personality and offices of the 
Spirit of God — the apostacy, total degeneracy and ruin 
of man — his absolute dependence on the grace of God 
— his exposure to eternal wrath — his duty, immediate 
and indispensable, to repent — the vast responsibility of 
Christians — the promises attached to the commands — 
the glorious privileges and prospects of the children of 
God, have been explained and urged with all the power 
received from heaven. And now. dear brethren! it 
remains for you to walk in these truths, by know- 
ing and believing them as living realities, by feeling 
their transcendent importance, by governing your con- 
duct thereby, by obeying them yourselves, and by 
spreading the knowledge and influence of them among 
others. 

The importance of it is seen in a thousand considera- 
tions. God had great and especial ends to accomplish 
in this peculiar revelation. He gave you this truth 
that you might walk in it ;■ for on this depends your 
personal holiness —your happiness — your usefulness. 

These are powerful considerations. But I wish to 
urge and to expand two others : — The peculiar mercies 
of God to this church, which powerfully augment the 
obligations of its members to do his will ; and the con- 
firmation which he has given in its progress, of certain 
great principles. 

We may say of this church, as Balaam said of Israel, 
when its tents lay spread far and wide along the valley 
beneath him, " What hath God wrought ? according 



310 SERMON XI. 

to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel — 
what hath God wrought ?" 

I have felt my soul, my being, identified with this 
church. More than eight years have rolled away since 
I saw the first little band cluster together in the name 
and strength of the God of Israel, to raise another ban- 
ner to his glory. To have said much about it before 
the present time, would virtually have been to speak 
of myself. But that period is past. Since the purpose 
has been fixed to leave you for a time — perhaps for 
ever — a new feeling has come over my heart. I feel 
as if I could stand aside with a more chastened affection 
and more impartial eye to behold the wonders and 
riches of Divine mercy. Of the fifty-five who laid the 
first foundation stone of this spiritual structure, only 
twenty-eight are now among us. Of the two hundred 
and thirty-two who constituted the church at the close 
of the first year, and saw that dark, distressing period, 
when nothing but the naked hand of Christ held us up 
among the roaring waters, only one hundred and eleven 
are now with us. They recollect, they can never for- 
get those days. It was " one day known to the Lord, 
not day nor night ; but it came to pass, that at evening 
time it was light." To-night I take with you a re- 
view of that period. To those, who now constitute 
this church, my message is — behold what the Lord 
hath wrought ! It is befitting this solemn and trying 
occasion to recount, like Israel of old, the mercies of 
God, that you may praise his name, — that you may 
understand more definitely the history of the principles 
of this association, with which you have become so inti- 
matety connected, — that you may feel your obligations. 

It is usual on such occasions for the pastor to speak 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 311 

of his own labors. I cannot do it. If I tell all that is 
in my heart, I shall fall upon my knees and cry, — " De- 
liver me from blood guiltiness." I shall supplicate for- 
giveness of the church — I shall weep at the feet of 
sinners, and ask them to forgive my selfishness, and 
my unfaithfulness and cruelty to their souls. By the 
grace of God something has been done ; but grace 
and power were given that have not been always im- 
proved. 

But this I pass over, to make mention of the wonder- 
ful acts of Him who has established with his people an 
unchanging covenant. " O give thanks unto the Lord j 
call upon his name ; make known his deeds among the 
people. Sing unto, him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye 
of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy 
name ; let the heart of them that seek the Lord, re- 
joice. Seek the Lord and his strength ; seek his face 
evermore. Remember his marvellous works that he 
hath done ; his wonders, and the judgments of his 
mouth; O ye seed of Abraham, his servant! ye chil- 
dren of Jacob, his chosen !" To illustrate his good- 
ness, let us place the beginning and the end of the 
period of eight years together. On the 16th of Novem- 
ber, 1828, I preached the first sermon to a company 
collected in the consistory room, kindly offered to us 
by the officers of the North Dutch Church ; who have 
thus imposed a debt, which we would cheerfully repay 
in the same currency if an opportunity occurred, as we 
have endeavored to repay it in thankfulness and bene- 
dictions. 

There were then two views taken of the enterprise. 
On the one side, both the friends and the enemies of 
God said it was an unholy enterprise, unwise and un- 



312 SERMON XI. 

called for ; I was charged with fanaticism and boyish 
indiscretion. It was said by the sagacious, " What do 
these men build ? behold, if a fox go up on their walls 
they will fall down." When this building was com- 
menced, some ridiculed ; obstructions met us in the 
usual financial arrangements, suspicions were set afloat 
concerning the safety of crediting any one connected 
even indirectly with the enterprise. When the first 
indications of the special presence of God's Spirit were 
experienced, we were branded with the severest ep- 
ithets, and the ears of God's children were open to the 
falsehoods of the wicked. Then understood I the 
meaning of the Psalmist, and the feelings of the blessed 
Savior in some measure : " My soul is among lions, 
and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even 
the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, 
and their tongue a sharp sword ; who whet their tongue 
like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, 
even bitter words." 

Now, God forbid that I should refer to the past in a 
spirit of revenge, or of boasting. I should loathe myself 
if I could ever indulge such feelings, but especially 
on such an occasion. God knows my heart towards 
this whole community, and towards those who were once 
my bitterest enemies. I do not boast ; but I say, that 
on the one side were these views and feelings, and pre- 
dictions; on the other, with much human imperfection, 
we certainly had for our leading principles and feel- 
ings — a determination to sustain the plain, honest ex- 
hibition of the truths of the gospel, without consulting 
unconverted men, whether they were pleased or dis- 
pleased — and an unwavering confidence that God 
would bless us if we served him ! 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 313 

There were many considerations which induced me 
to remain here. Low and selfish motives were at- 
tributed. My friends ! (I say it to the glory of God,) 
J had as much confidence when I met in the first 
prayer- meeting with twenty persons, that God would 
greatly bless us, as I have now that he has blessed us. 
Do not call it presumption, for I knew that I was sur- 
rounded by a praying band. Among many other 
considerations which induced me to remain and bear 
the peltings of the pitiless storm, was the fact, as stated 
then to me, that a number of Christians were engaged 
in prayer from sun-set to sun-rise, that I might not be 
permitted to leave the city. That turned the scale ; 
I could not desert such spirits ; and I knew God would 
bless them. I saw it, I felt it ; and I feel now as if I 
could go gladly to attack the spirits in the pit, if God 
sent me, surrounded by such hearts. And, more than 
this, this enterprise and my unworthy name were on 
the lips of hundreds of God's praying people, from this 
city to Buffalo. An eminent saint, who preached over 
a wide circuit, was in the habit of encouraging the 
churches to bear our cause to the mercy-seat con- 
tinually. I consider this church as a monument 
inscribed with the evidences of the power of prayer, 
and the faithfulness o[ Jacob's God. The enemy said 
•' : By whom shall Jacob arise ? for he is small." We 
replied— 'In God is our trust ; we will make our boast 
in the Lord.' 

Now let us see how the Lord hath dealt with us. 
Truly he hath encouraged the hearts of them that be- 
lieved, and he hath silenced the enemy and avenger. 
I preached from Nov. 1828, to Feb. 1829, at which 
time the church was organized. And it seemed as if 

27 



314 SERMON XI. 

the Lord would try our faith, by suspending the mani- 
festation of his favor, until as a distinct, organized and 
consecrated church, we sat down for the first time, to 
celebrate the death of Christ. I shall never forget that 
day. After its toils were over, I was sent for. late at 
night, to see a trembling soul who had that day been 
brought to see her guilt and danger. That was the 
first fruit of a glorious harvest. An inquiry meeting 
was appointed ; and to my surprise, upwards of sixty 
were present. From that day to this, we have not 
passed the year without some special outpouring of the 
Spirit of God. 

It would animate the hearts of other Christians to 
hear a description of the exercises of many who have 
been converted. Never can I forget that beloved apart- 
ment of this building, where I have met the inquirers, 
and where I have seen them consecrate themselves to 
God and the Lamb. Oh ! what changes in individual 
character ; in families, — nay, in neighborhoods, hath 
God's blessed Spirit wrought ! Within this period, 
there have been united to this church, by letter and on 
confession 1012 members, making an average of 125 
each year. The Sabbath School has contained 1500 
pupils. 

We have contributed moneys which 1 can trace as 
follows : Domestic Missions, $853 ; Tract Society, 
$823 ; Colonization, $215 ; Bible Society, $170 ; City 
objects, $1220; Sabbath Schod,, $700; Theological 
Education, $4964 ; Foreign Misssions, $4900. Total, 
$13,843— an average of $1730 per annum. We in- 
curred immediately on our organization a heavy debt, 
which is now, by our own exertions and the aid of 
friends, nearly extinguished. 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 315 

Forty-six of our brethren and sisters have changed 
their connection with the earthly for one with the 
heavenly church. How glorious it has been to see 
them turn to the Lord, and seriously address them- 
selves to preparation for death, and then to witness the 
reality of the change, and its importance tested and de- 
monstrated in the honest hour of the soul's approach to 
the judgment-seat. To see the law-condemned sinner 
repent, the rebel return and obtain forgiveness ; to fol- 
low the soul through its successive stages of heavenly 
improvement and refinement ; and then to stand on the 
verge of the river of death, to wade in and support the 
departing spirit until it catches a view of the celestial 
glory, to hear it shout, to see it just touching the bliss- 
ful shore — this is a minister's salary. Mine has been 
paid. « Behold, what hath God wrought ? If it had 
not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel 
say, when men rose up against us ; then they had swal- 
lowed us up quickly when their wrath was kindled 
against us ; then the water had overwhelmed us, the 
stream had gone over our soul : then the proud waters 
had gone over our soul. Our soul has escaped as a bird 
out of the snare of the fowler ; the snare is broken, and 
we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, 
who made heaven and earth." " Ye are my witnesses," 
saith the Lord. We are, mighty God ! Thou hast 
glorified thy mercy and thy truth in the midst of us. 
There is yet another aspect of God's dealings with us. 

He has kindly chastened us. We have not been 
exempt from the common experience of troublesome 
members, backsliders, general coldness and utter apos- 
tacies. But in looking back on the rapid advance of 
this enterprise, the wonder is that in such a sudden 



316 SERMON XI. 

forming into one mass, of so many people, of such va- 
rious habits, temperament and education, that more 
difficulties have not occurred. It is wonderful that 
self-will, the last of all the human passions to be sub- 
dued, the great nuisance of every moral government, 
has not shown itself more strongly and more vexatious- 
ly here. It would have done so, but the hand of the 
Lord has been with us. He tempered the fire that was 
consuming our dross. We bless him that he has af- 
flicted us, and so afflicted us. And now we may look 
back on those days of rebuke and say — "When the 
Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like 
them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with 
laughter, and our tongue with singing ; then said they 
among the Gentiles, the Lord hath done great things 
for therm The Lord hath done great things for us, 
whereof we are glad. They that sow in tears shall reap 
in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing pre- 
cious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
bringing his sheaves with him." 

In addition to this view of God's mercies to the 
church, I would impress obligation, by showing that 
God has in a particular manner confirmed, in the 
midst of us, certain great principles. 

1. The power of prayer. 

The foundation-stone of this enterprise was laid 
emphatically m prayer ; the duty of prayer has been 
enjoined and urged incessantly. Meetings for prayer 
have been multiplied to a degree, in the estimation of 
many, extravagant. Now it is not fair to presume, that 
there has been any more sincere prayer here in pro- 
portion, than with other Christians. But it is fair to 
suppose, that there has been as much in proportion, and 






VALEDICTORY SERMON. 317 

consequently that there has been in fact more real 
prayer than in most societies around us. We have as- 
sembled in the early morning for months. We have 
met, for long periods, at 10 o'clock every morning to pray 
directly for the conversion of the impenitent. We have 
believed in the transcendent importance of the conver- 
sion of men. We have prayed for it. We have witness- 
ed it in hundreds of joyful instances. All our history is 
such a demonstration of the efficacy of prayer, that, if I 
had never had any other proof, I should feel an over- 
whelming sense of obligation to pray without ceasing. 

2. God will bless the faithful exertions of his people. 
When we speak of faithfulness, it is only relative. 

It has been found here, that whenever we employed 
certain instrumentalities with earnestness, they were 
blessed. Whenever the church has consecrated special 
seasons to prayer, and to exertions to awaken in the 
community a sense of the importance of personal reli- 
gion ; they have never failed of success. 

3. That to feel for others, and to give of our pro- 
perty for their good, is blessed. 

We commenced with a love to the cause of evangel- 
izino- the world. In debt as a church, poor as indi- 
viduals, we have never yet failed to do our proportion, 
not of what ought to be done, but of what has been 
done in this great cause. There were times when the 
faith of some of our brethren staggered on this point ; 
it seemed to them presumptuous to be sending away 
hundreds of dollars to others, when a heavy burden 
hung upon our own wheels. But we have never failed. 
For the last six years we have supported a foreign mis- 
sionary ) and during the current year we have raised 
by subscription nearly $300 more. But we have lost 

27* 



318 SERMON XI. 

nothing. The monthly concert of prayer has been to 
us a delightful season. In watering others, we have 
ever been watered ourselves. And when at length we 
struggled to roll off our heavy debt, God helped us. 
He inclined the hearts of our young men to step promptly 
forward ; and he raised up for us kind friends in the 
community. 

4. The duty of the Church to take a high stand in 
the reformations tohich benevolent men are urging 
forward. 

We have been met, as before remarked, with the sen- 
timent in various forms — that the Church and her min- 
isters must not go in advance of public sentiment. The 
pledge to abstain from ardent spirits was thought by 
many to be a very good thing : but it was not discreet 
to introduce the subject into the pulpit, and to urge it 
forward. We believed not so. Nay more ; we believed 
that it was our duty as a church to admit no one to our 
communion who would not enter into this stipulation, 
We wanted no Christians, who could stand aside and 
look with indifference upon this noble effort of philan- 
thropy and piety. We have never had occasion to re- 
gret it, but much reason to rejoice in it. God has 
blessed it. Many reformed inebriates have entered this 
church, and to my knowledge there is no case of re- 
lapse. The walls of this building have resounded for 
successive months with the pleas of the eloquent friends 
of temperance ; and many a heart has been gladdened, 
as the father, husband, and son have come forward and 
pledged themselves to the abandonment of the destruc- 
tive drink. The plea for the Sabbath, and the plea for 
the seventh commandment, have been urged here. 
And I rejoice that on this platform has been urged the 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 319 

claim of the enslaved. I have heard of the danger of 
exposing the building and the audience to molestation. 
I have heard of something worse, — the odium attached 
to the cause of liberty. But we have gloried to bear 
that odium. We rejoice that God enabled us to erect 
one of the buildings in this city where the cry of the 
oppressed and down-trodden could be echoed in the ear 
of Christian sympathy. We feel assured that it is right. 
We bless God for the assurance which his providence 
affords us, that it is right for his church to be the pioneer 
of moral reformations. The right of opinion is a na- 
tural right ; the right of expressing opinion is another, 
conferred by the author of the human constitution ; 
and both sacredly guaranteed by the bond of our politi- 
cal union. And I know nothing more alarming in 
modern politics, than the attempt to brow-beat free 
American citizens in the peaceful maintenance of eter- 
nal truths, and to persecute them for the candid, manly. 
and courteous expression of those sentiments. We 
have a right to try to convince the north and south. 
Ministers have a right from God, and a commission 
and a warrant from the American constitution, to expose 
the sins and dangers involved in the system of oppres- 
sion legalized and practised among us. I am ashamed 
to hear it said, that there are places in America, where 
you cannot candidly and temperately discuss great 
questions of public duty and safety. 

5. The propriety, policy, and importance of plain, 
direct, pungent preaching. 

Here I make no contrasts. Hearing no preaching 
out of this place, I am unable to form a judgment con- 
cerning the various styles adopted in this city. But I 
know, that when I preached to another congregation, 



820 SERMON XI. 

they turned me from them because I preached too di- 
rectly and pungently. I never could hear any other 
objection on the most careful inquiry. On that point I 
was entreated to change. But on that point this church 
took its stand from the commencement, and determined 
to welcome the most direct and pungent preaching that 
was according to the word of God. Now for the im- 
portance of it ; it is to us most manifest that God has 
connected the conversion of hundreds with that as an 
indispensable means. As to the policy of it; it was 
said — ' Why men will desert your churches.' God has 
shown us that it is not so. And more than that, 1 am 
the living witness to the fact, that the churches in this 
city will now bear a degree of directness and pungency 
that would once have been thought intolerable. I am 
told that I have altered. I say, that public sentiment 
has altered. One of the most convincing proofs of it to 
me is, that I am ashamed now to preach those very ser- 
mons which made the disturbance in the Second Church 
because they are too tame and pointless. 

And now, dear friends ! having shown what God hath 
wrought for and by this society, you will permit me to 
speak more directly of God's mercies to me as your 
Pastor. No man can tell what I have passed through 
in this city. My entrance here was flattering ; my re- 
ception, every thing I could ask as a man and a minis- 
ter. So long as Foreign Missions was my topic, all 
went well. But when I turned to show the amiable 
and moral and respected of this community, that they 
were more guilty than the heathen, and were going to 
a deeper condemnation, they rose in might against me. 
I had never known an enemy before, since my conver- 
sion. I had never been slandered. But now a new 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 321 

scene awaited me in this goodly city, I was reviled ; 
my sermons and sentiments were misrepresented ; 
friends grew cold and enemies multiplied. For a 
stripling this was new, and, you may be sure, well 
nigh overwhelming. My heart overflowed with love 
to all. I could not see why any should persecute me. 
But oh ! it was a blessed school. I would not part 
with the lessons there learned for all the enjoyments 
of an undisturbed prosperity. Yet for three years I 
walked the streets of this city, feeling as if, by God's 
command, I was an intruder here. I have felt as if the 
very houses frowned upon me. Cheerfully would I 
have fled and hid myself like Elijah in a cave ; but 
the very style of the opposition showed clearly, that the 
controversy was with God and his word, not with the 
lips of clay which uttered it. 

But 1 turn from that, to speak of the hearts which 
cherished, and the hands which upheld me, in those 
trying days. Brethren ! sisters ! I thus publicly thank 
you. You gave not only a cup of cold water to a dis- 
ciple when it was a reproach to you, you shared his 
sorrows, you shielded his reputation with your own, 
you would have shared the last earthly comfort, with 
him ; you would have died with him for Christ. You 
wept for me, you carried my burdens, you prayed for 
me. I know it. And my heart thanks you ; my soul 
clings to you. But chiefly I recognise the goodness of 
God in it, in whose hands are all hearts. I thank the 
members of the church for their forbearance and sym- 
pathy and respect, and the many proofs of their love. 
Nothing but love has made you bear with my very 
imperfect discharge of the duties that I owed you. 
God hath wrought in you this heart of kindness. My 



322 SERMON XI. 

highest thanks are due to him. I thank God, this 
night, before you all, for his provident care of me. I 
have not been prevented by sickness from preaching, 
so many as twelve Sabbaths for nearly nine years. 
Since commencing to form this church I have preached 
to you about one thousand sermons. I have assisted 
other churches in sustaining more than thirty protract- 
ed meetings. I have delivered ninety addresses on 
Temperance ; more than a hundred addresses on For- 
eign Missions ; many on Slavery ; many for objects in 
our city; for the Tract, Bible, Education, and other 
societies ; attended and addressed the various societies 
in three anniversaries at New- York, one at Cincinnati, 
one at Lexington, Ky., one at Boston, one at Troy. I 
have performed a tour through many principal cities in 
this state and into Canada, on the subject of Common 
School Education. 

With the fullest sense of my unworthiness to labor 
in so glorious a cause, do 1, this night, render thanks 
to God for bestowing upon me the ability and dispo- 
sition to perform these labors. Brethren ! I have be- 
come a fool in glorying ; but God is my witness, I do 
it for his glory. I dare not refrain. I have been a 
child of Providence. David could not hold his tongue 
from uttering the mercies of God after his great de- 
liverances. 

And now, brethren ! I am about to say — Farewell ! 
I leave you, not because I do not love you. My heart 
grows closer to you every day. This church appears 
to me more interesting, and more important than ever. 
I go, because I believe I ought to go. Europe is dear 
to my heart ; but America is dearer. And I know 
that if permitted, I shall hail its shores again with de- 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 323 

light. I go to gather light from the experience of ages, 
to see man in other climates, and under other institu- 
tions. My soul pants for knowledge, human and 
divine. But I would not indulge the desire, could not 
that knowledge, when acquired, be employed for greater 
usefulness. Be assured, it is not for myself. Whatever 
I am now, or may be hereafter, is my country's and my 
God's. I consecrate it to the Church of Christ and to 
the human race. 

Brethren ! what mean ye to weep and break my 
heart ? If there be pleasure in the prospect of seeing 
many wonders, of witnessing the splendid trophies of 
human genius, of indulging the powerful desires of 
curiosity, I have felt little of it ; and less and less as 
the time of our separation has approached. The recol- 
lections of the past, the evidences of your ardent and 
unbought love, the anticipation of your painful feel- 
ings, when an accustomed voice, which your own 
kindness has made you love to hear, shall be heard no 
more, — these considerations have occupied my mind 
supremely. The question,— l How shall I accomplish 
the most good for this beloved people during the brief 
period of our intercourse,' — has weighed heavily on 
my heart. And now the end of this anxiety is reached, 
and I am called to perform the last act of religious 
service in this endeared sanctuary. Oh ! it is with a 
heavy heart that I say to such friends — farewell ! 
Deeply shall your names, your countenances be en- 
graven on this memory. I shall carry a catalogue of 
them with me, and spread it before that mercy-seat, at 
which we have so often met. My children! my 
brothers ! my fathers ! walk in the truth. God has 
been with you, is with you, has promised still to be 



324 SERMON XI. 

with you. Look at all the way in which he has led 
you. Ebenezers line the path of your history. Each 
once speaks to your heart — 'be of good courage, for 
our God is an unchanging God.' 

Brethren in the eldership ! called to watch over this 
flock with me, a double responsibility will now come 
upon you. I can no longer share that superintendence. 
But it is not among the least of God's mercies, that the 
recent meetings which we have held, the enlargement 
of your numbers, and the plan of operations adopted, 
give such promise of benefits to the church. Be reg- 
ular, be punctual in your sessional meetings. Go to 
this afflicted people ; watch over them ; for the tempter 
will now have peculiar power over many, by making a 
readier excuse for deserting the ordinances and the 
house of God. Watch over every wheel in our moral 
machinery. See that none of them stop, see that each 
is kept in repair, and is moving in its place. I com- 
mend to you the Sabbath-Schools, the Bible-Classes, 
the Young Men's Association, the Maternal Associa- 
tion, the Converts' Class, the Prayer-Meeting, the Tract- 
Distribution, the Benevolent Societies. See that this 
people hear the claims of each during every year. Do 
not let them hug their purses, and close their ear to the 
cry of the perishing. Call the attention of this people 
to the great moral reformations of our day. Enlist 
their hearts for the drunkard, the slave, the unwary 
youth who walks amid the snares of the licentious, the 
Sabbath-profaner. Point this people to the times and 
seasons and ways, when they can labor with special 
promise of success for the conversion of sinners. 

Fathers ! mothers ! love the souls of your children. 
Much, much remains to be done for them, that has not 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 325 

been done. There is a degree and kind of prayer, of 
anxiety, of skill, of perseverance, which you have not 
yet adopted. I entreat every mother of young children 
to join the Maternal Association and love it, for it must 
benefit you, if your heart is right. 

Young men ! be* strong in the Lord. Cherish the 
association which you have formed. Cherish this 
church. Bear it on your strong shoulders, and inspire 
it with your own constitutional vigor. 

Young women ! the modern development of God's 
providences has opened to you new, wide and appro- 
priate spheres of great usefulness ; enter and walk in 
them. 

Aged fathers and mothers in Israel ! I rejoice that 
you have almost reached your crown. Be faithful 
unto death. 

Dear children ! you are very dear to me. It is your 
conversion I have sought, and now most earnestly de- 
sire. Turn now to the Lord. Give your hearts to him 
and serve him. 

Dear converts ! next to the impenitent, there is no 
class of our church and congregation from whom I so 
reluctantly separate. I know that others can watch 
over you and teach you. But ye have not many fathers. 
" I have no greater joy than to hear that my children 
walk in truth." 

To the members of the church generally, let me re- 
commend a chastened, Christian love to this church. I 
mean not with party-spirit, nor sectarian zeal. But, 
because your responsibilities are concentrated here, 
here exert yourselves in building up the knowledge of 
Christ. Love other Christians, other sects. Look more 
at the great points of resemblance, than at the minor 

38 



326 SERMON XI. 

points of difference. Cherish the spirit of harmony, 
with one another. Let no root of bitterness spring up, 
no schism. Abhor the talebearer and backbiter, the 
curse of every community, peculiarly of a church. 
And now, let me express to you my fear of the ad- 
vantage, which the adversary will take of my depart- 
ure. Your thoughts and conversations concerning a 
man may lead even your hearts from God. " When my 
father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take 
me up," said an ancient saint. This is from the Lord ; 
whether I am right or wrong in this step. He directs 
it to you. See his hand, and kiss the rod. Yield your 
personal preferences concerning him who succeeds. 
Finally, brethren ! pray for me. 

Once more, unconverted hearers ! let your friend 
and brother turn to you. You have honored my 
ministry. I thank you for it. But my master — how 
have you treated him ? And his message, — how have 
you treated that ? Oh ! must I, your friend and brother, 
be a swift witness against you ? Life and death, good 
and evil, blessings and cursings have been set before 
you in the name of the Lord. But here I leave you 
unreconciled to God. May I linger yet a moment 
around you ; may I yet persuade you, by all the claims 
of God, by all the terrors of his curse, by all the price 
paid for your redemption, by all the yearnings of a 
brother's heart, to form the great decision by which 
you cross the dividing line between life and death ; 
to exercise that repentance by which you can honestly 
come to Christ, that faith by which you can partake 
of the fulness of his salvation. Come, come, I entreat 
you. With a lingering step, I turn from you. Will 
you come? 



VALEDICTORY SERMON. 327 

Citizens of Albany ! farewell ! Have I wronged you, 
have I misled? or have I been as a prophet of the 
Lord in the midst of you ? Speak ; for I am now seal- 
ing the first section of my ministry, perhaps the last 
among you. I have stood on yon heights and looked 
over your dwellings, and my anxious thoughts have 
dwelt upon your spiritual interests ; my fervent prayers 
have arisen for you and your children. I have been 
willing to labor for the general good, just as much as 
for this individual association. If any have injured 
me, I would that they knew how fully they are for- 
given. If I have injured any, I would that they knew 
how sincerely I implore forgiveness. Many of you 
have kindly appreciated my desires for your welfare, 
whatever you have thought of the imperfect manner 
employed to promote it. You are kind, and your kind- 
ness will be remembered. 

Members of sister churches ! God bless you, and 
make you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Remember your absent brother. 

Unconverted fellow-citizens ! hear the last word of a 
parting friend ; make Christ your Savior, and Heaven 
your prize. " Ye must be born again." Turn, then, 
quickly to the Lord, and your souls shall live. 

Again, dear friends ! farexoell — farewell ! 



ADDRESSES, 



TO PROMOTE THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION ; 

Delivered in Surrey Chapel, London. 

The following addresses were delivered by Mr. Kirk at a meeting in 
Surrey Chapel, so well known as the scene of the labors of the Rev. 
Rowland Hill. This meeting, or rather, series of meetings, was designed 
to make the experiment, whether these means, so much blessed in Amer- 
ica, were adapted only to transatlantic minds, or not. The issues were 
delightful ; multitudes of ministers, in the metropolis, and through the 
country, were encouraged to "prove the Lord" in the same manner; 
and they found, too, that his special blessing was awaiting their special 
labors and prayers. 

These addresses were taken down by a stenographer, and published, 
together with several sermons ; in fact, all the exercises of the week were 
published in a neat little book, entitled, " The Church Awakened;" and 

had a wide circulation. 

28* 



ADDRESS I. 

Rev. James Sherman, pastor of the Church, having made some very 
impressive remarks, Mr. Kirk arose and addressed the assembly ; — 

My Beloved Christian Friends! 

I suppose that few, who have at all reflected upon 
the subject, will be disposed to deny, that, immediately 
after death, (unless the mind be overwhelmed with the 
suddenness, and the awful nature, of the objects which 
present themselves to our view,) the mind will wake 
up with astonishment — astonishment that we could 
have been living so far from God, and astonishment 
that we continued so long to view every thing through 
a false medium. You can take the smallest coin, and, 
by bringing it near to the eye, can conceal the sun 
from your view. Small as is the object, its nearness 
to the eye prevents you from beholding one of greater 
magnitude at a distance. Here, then, is the delusion : — ■ 
« The things which are seen are temporal ;" but still 
they are seen, and the sight of them prevents us from 
seeing those which are eternal. God has, therefore, 
brought in a new principle, which is faith. This looks 
not at the things which are seen, but at those whieh 
are unseen ; not to things which are temporal, but to 
those which are eternal ; and it presents these unseen 
and eternal objects to our view, not as if regarded 
through an inverted telescope, but clothed in all their 



332 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

grandeur and magnitude, and as if constantly before us 
and around us. 

You have heard of our meetings for the revival of 
religion in America ; and I now want to explain to you 
one of the principles on which they are conducted, that 
you may be able to judge for yourselves. 

When we commenced our protracted meetings for a 
revival of religion, some ridiculed us. But God gave 
us strength to persevere. It is a fact which none can~ 
dispute, that every minister of Christ may learn some- 
thing by coming in close contact with the minds of his 
people. It is a grand mistake to wait at home, and 
expect that our people will come to us ; we must go out 
in quest of them, and ascertain definitely what is their 
state of mind, and what impressions our sermons pro- 
duce. We stay at home and study theology in our 
closets, till, by abstract meditation, we reach a point 
intellectually far beyond the reach of our people. We 
learn the meaning of technical words and terms, about 
which our people know comparatively nothing. We 
think that they know them : but in this we often labor 
under a great mistake. To us, these words are talis- 
mans, calling up deep emotions ; to them they are cold 
and unmeaning. There are men, for instance, who, 
throughout the whole week, have been doing nothing 
but counting pounds, shillings, and pence. They are 
in no way prepared either to listen to, or understand, 
their minister on the Sabbath. They attend, perhaps, 
in the morning, but have not yet had time to disengage 
themselves from the world, and to be prepared for sym- 
pathy with the things of a spiritual world. The same 
parties attend in the afternoon, a little better prepared. 
And why ? Because we have been striking upon their 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 333 

flinty hearts all the morning, holding up Christ to 
their view, and saying, " Come here, and look !" On 
the very same principle, our evening-meetings have 
been best of all ; the people's hearts becoming all the 
while better prepared for the reception of the truth. I 
found this so strongly the case in my own congre- 
gation, that I determined that Monday should not roll 
its oblivious wave over the impressions of the Sabbath. 
" God," said I, " has given us one Sabbath,— one day 
for meeting ; but why should we not have two ?" We 
tried it, and my hopes were realized. The impres- 
sions of the Sabbath were revived and deepened in 
the morning, still more in the afternoon, and most of 
all at night. By the aid of some ministers, we held 
the attention of the people continually to the truth ; 
and we were willing to go on to Tuesday, Wednesday, 
Thursday, Friday, or Saturday ; or, if God gave us 
strength, till we were called upon to lay our feeble 
bodies in the dust, if it were best. 

To render this principle more obvious, let me suppose 
a case. I want to sell a house, and the price I fix upon 
it is £5000. The price I have fixed upon is large, but 
not more than its real value. The person, to whom 
I have offered it for sale, knows nothing of its value, 
having never seen it, but he has a very clear idea of 
the value of £5000. I give him a description of it, but 
he still refuses to purchase. I take him and show him 
the house, leading him first into this apartment and 
then into that ; pointing out to him first this embellish- 
ment and then that ; directing, at the same time, his 
attention to fertile lands upon which it is situated, and 
the beautiful views by which it is surrounded ; and I 
find, by watching his countenance, that the £5000 are 



334 • ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

rapidly sinking in his estimation, and that his desire to 
possess the house is becoming stronger and stronger, 
until at last he determines to buy it. 

Just so it is with the sinner. You are not to expect 
him to buy the truth, without some effort on your part 
to impress upon him a conviction of its intrinsic value. 
If you want to do the sinner good, take him all around 
the pit of hell ; let him see the flames of that fire which 
is never quenched ; let him hear the shrieks and groans 
of those condemned criminals, who are for ever shut 
up in the regions of darkness and despair ; and when 
he has seen this, say, — c Immortal man ! we want to 
get you out of that state of torpor in which you have 
so long lain. It is not for the sake merely of terrifying 
you, but to lead you to see things as you will, one day, 
see them in the light of another world.' Take him all 
around the battlements of Zion, the holy city, the city 
of our God ; let him tell her towers ; let him mark her 
bulwarks ; let him consider her palaces ; let him hear 
the celestial music which warbles upon the tongues of 
the heavenly choir ; and then say, — < Consider, immor- 
tal man ! at what a price all this has been purchased — 
the price of the Savior's blood ; and let the world, which 
has so long engrossed your thoughts and affections, and 
so long dazzled you with the false glare of its splendor, 
go, and go for ever.' Take him all around the cross 
of Christ ; show him the dignity of the mighty Sufferer ; 
let him see those expiring throes at which all nature 
was convulsed. 

The truth is God's instrument of conversion ; but 
the truth, to be effective, must be closely, solemnly, 
and continuously the object of thought. We see the 
mind of an individual serious on Sunday, less so on 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 335 

Monday, and still less so on Tuesday. The impres- 
sions of truth, like the waves of a retiring tide, are 
every day more and more feeble. Say to him, then, — 
' We want you to see these things on Monday as you 
saw them on Sunday ; and we think that if you saw* 
that lovely face, and those bleeding hands, which were 
stretched upon the cross, you would be led to feel the 
awfulness of your condition, and the necessity of your 
immediately escaping with your life. We want not, 
by this, to make the truth more perfect, but to cause 
you to feel more of its power ; and if Sunday is not 
sufficient for this purpose, let us have Monday, and 
Tuesday, yea, the whole week, rather than suffer the 
things that are temporal to stand in the way of those 
that are eternal.' This is what I call, the Philosophy 
of Revivals ; this is the principle on which our pro- 
tracted meetings have been held in America — the prin- 
ciple of constantly holding the minds of the people 
fixed on the truth. The foolish ostrich, when pursued, 
buries his head in the sand, and supposes that his body 
is concealed. So unconverted sinners fly from the 
pursuit of truth, and endeavor to conceal themselves in 
a crowd of worldly enjoyments and pursuits. If we 
would be faithful to s our trust, we must go forth and 
drag them from their hiding place, and throw around 
them the blaze of truth with so dazzling a splendor that 
they shall be unable to withstand it. 

Oh ! I have felt in this sacred place, this morning, 
so much of the preciousness of Jesus to my soul, and 
my heart has so panted with new desires to serve him, 
that no language could give adequate utterance to my 
feelings. God has opened to my view such a desire 
for his glory as for a long time I have not felt. And 



336 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

many, I presume, can testify the same. I think that 
the Spirit of God is beginning to move on the hearts 
of his people in this place ; and my reasons for think- 
ing so are two. First, — There has been a little in- 
crease in the spirit of prayer ; and secondly, — God has 
granted an answer to these prayers in the manifestation 
of his presence. If a little prayer will bring down such 
joy into the hearts of his people, what are we to expect 
when he comes down in the plenitude of his influence, 
in answer to the united and fervent prayers of his 
people ! 

I remarked, last night, on the coming of the Spirit ; 
and, I believe that we are living in the days predicted 
in the third chapter and the first and second verses of 
the prophecies of Malachi ; — " Behold, I will send my 
Messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me ; 
and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to 
his temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, whom 
ye delight in : behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of 
hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming ? and 
who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a 
refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. And he shall sit as 
a refiner and purifier of silver ; and he shall purify the 
sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that 
they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteous- 
ness." I may remark, here, that some of these prophe- 
cies have a double, or even a threefold signification ; 
and that this particular prophecy has had its fulfilment 
in the person of John the Baptist, as also at the day of 
Pentecost. But our blessed Lord has told us, that "the 
kingdom of God cometh not with observation ;" and 
we believe that the kingdom of God will come without 
observation into your hearts and into mine ; and we 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 337 

further believe that the messengers, whom the Lord 
now. sends to prepare the way before him, are his faith* 
ml ministers, deeply and anxiously concerned to extend 
the boundaries of the Redeemer's kingdom. It is now 
fulfilled in the preachers of the gospel, — in my dear 
brother, the pastor of this church, clothed with the 
spirit and with the power of John the Baptist, and de- 
sirous of recovering the backsliding hearts of his peo* 
pie to holiness and peace. 

I have no time now to speak on this subject ; but I 
found a dear brother in a different part of the country, 
whose heart God has affected in the same way ; and I 
trust there are many on whose minds the Spirit of God 
has begun to work. •• Behold, 1 will send my Messen- 
ger before me," &c. That is just what we want. 
" Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But 
who shall abide the day of his coming? and who shall 
stand when he appeareth ?" Oh ! this is a solemn, a 
serious time, when God's servants come to search the 
hearts of his people. I ask every individual present, 
— ' My brother ! my sister in Christ ! do you feel that 
the Spirit of God, through the instrumentality of his 
ministers, is removing your past sins from your bur- 
dened consciences? is causing you to put away the 
idols from your hearts, and to make an unreserved 
surrender of yourself to his service ?' Oh ! this is the 
work of the Spirit of God. No power, save the al- 
mighty energies of the Spirit, could ever produce such 
a glorious effect. 

Let us, dear brethren ! remark the peculiarity of the 

dispensation under which we live. God has required 

great importunity on our part as a prerequisite to the 

bestowment of the blessing ; and he has left on record 
29 



338 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

many illustrious examples of successful importunity in 
prayer. One is the case of Jacob, who wrestled with 
the angel till the break of day, and when remonstrated 
with, said, " I will not let thee go, except thou bless 
me." From this importunity on this occasion, and 
from the prevalence of his prayer, his name was 
changed to Israel, which virtually signifies, a man of 
power with God. The men, who were made the 
honored instruments of giving freedom to the slaves, 
might be said to be men of power, having had power 
with their sovereign and with their country ; but Jacob, 
afterwards called Israel 3 stands pre-eminently entitled 
to this appellation, for it is said by Jehovah himself, 
" Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel ; 
for as a prince hast thou power with God and with 
men, and hast prevailed." He takes hold of the con- 
descending covenant-promises, and determines to keep 
God to his word, and by his importunity, he prevails. 

A minister once said — ' I have often been struck with 
the beauty and force of the following illustration ; — 
" There are two kinds of prayers to be seen among pro- 
fessing Christians, which may be illustrated thus; — 
A kind and affectionate mother has left her children in 
an adjoining room to amuse themselves with play. By 
and by, hearing one of them cry, she starts up and 
listens at the door, but finds by the well-known tones 
of their voices, that it is only pretence. She resumes 
her seat ; but shortly hearing notes of real distress 
again proceeding from the apartment, she exclaims, 
* My child ! my child /' and rushes at once to its as- 
sistance." ' So it is in the Church. Some men stand 
up to pray ; but when God listens, he finds that they 
are only mocking him in their prayers. By and by he 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 339 

hears another cry ; he listens again, and finds that it 
proceeds from one of his broken-hearted children ; and, 
true to his promise,— " Call upon me in the day of 
trouble, and I will deliver thee," — he rushes at once to 
his aid. If there is a broken-hearted child in this as- 
sembly, this morning, let him take encouragement from 
this representation of God's regard for his dear chil- 
dren. « Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will 
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." 

I have been led to these remarks, dear brethren ! 
with the view of showing the value and importance of 
importunity in prayer. It is a wise and a benevolent 
arrangement on the part of Jehovah, that the enjoy- 
ment of the blessings we seek should be connected with 
importunate prayer. 

One reason for requiring this importunity is, that the 
Church is often asking for blessings which she is in no 
way prepared to receive. 

A second reason for this importunity is, that the 
Church is often unwilling to do something, which God 
requires to be done in order to the attainment of the 
blessing. The Church is praying for the Spirit, but is 
not doing, in other respects, what God has required. 
The farmer ploughs his field, and then casts in his 
seed, and waits for the growth and maturity of the 
crop. Oh ! there is much to be learned by Christians 
in the art of doing good. Whilst you are waiting for 
the Spirit, and praying for the Spirit, you must be seek- 
ing for opportunities of casting in the seed of the word. 

A third reason, and the last that we shall mention, is, 
that the more you pray for the blessing that you need, the 
greater will be your desire for it. The more you hold 
converse with God, pleading for the salvation of im- 



340 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE, &C. 

mortal souls, the more impressively will you see their 
value, and the more intense will be^your desires for 
their conversion. Have you come with this desire this 
morning ? Is it your concern that the Spirit of God 
should be poured out upon the hearts of poor sinners ? 
Learn a lesson from the husbandman. Go forth, Chris- 
tians ! plough up the fallow ground of your immediate 
neighborhoods : tell sinners of .their delusion, guilt, 
and danger; and bring them here to listen to the word. 
O ! sons and daughters of Israel ! pray for the dews 
of heaven to descend upon the Church, for the south 
wind to blow upon the garden of the Lord, that it may 
be fruitful, and filled with the plants of life 



ADDRESS II. 

Dear Christian Friends ! 

I believe that we are just as accountable for a 
spiritual famine, as we are for a famine of daily bread 
occurring by our neglect. If, in the latter case, we had 
omitted to do all, nay, if we had neglected to do any 
part of that, which God had appointed by us to do, we 
should have been so far guilty ; so far the authors of 
our own destitution. And 1 believe, that it is just as 
awful a perversion in the Church as it would be in the 
world, for men to allege the sovereignty of God as a 
reason for disconnecting the end with the appointed 
means. If a farmer were to say, < I have no power to 
produce grain or any other crop in my fields ; this 
must be the work of God ; he must send the showers 
from heaven ; he must scatter abroad the genial rays 
of the sun : he must cause the early and the latter rain 
to descend ; he must protect the seed when cast into 
the ground, and the tender blade when it first appears ; 
he must watch over it and ripen it to maturity ; or a 
single grain will never grow :' — if he should say this, 
we should at once reply, — l All very true ; this is a 
position which none will dispute.' But, if the farmer 
should therefore say, — < If God has decreed that barley 

29* 



342 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

shall grow in this field, and that wheat shall grow in 
that, grow it will, and there is no need for my labor, 
and anxiety, and toil ;' and, if he should act on this 
principle, and neither plough the ground, nor sow the 
seed, and the land should be filled with famine, — the 
folly and the wickedness would rest with the man. 
The kingdom of God would go on ; there would be no 
interference with the harmony of his plans or his pur- 
poses ; but the people, having neglected the appointed 
means of safety, would die. It is surprising how men 
have reasoned the sovereignity of God out of the nat- 
ural, and confined it to the spiritual world. 

A famine of bread and of water, my dear Christian 
friends! is an awful thing; but what is this to a famine 
of the word of God ? A man, with a large family, who 
lived in the midst of one of those spiritual dearths, 
where the word has no power, where there is no sol- 
emn . exhibition of the truth, no weeping minister, no 
hearts bleeding with compassion for poor sinners, went 
to one of the deacons, and said, — " I can endure this no 
longer ; the minister does not wield the sword of the 
Spirit in power ; the weapons of the spiritual warfare 
do not prove themselves mighty through God to the 
pulling down of Satan's strong holds. I see souls dying 
around me daily ; my own family are growing up in 
sin for want of the power of the Spirit of God on their 
hearts ; we must have a revival of religion." The old 
deacon listened with great attention ; and then looking 
very calm and placid, said, " My dear brother ! we shall 
have a revival, if God has decreed that we shall have 
it ; but if it be man's revival, it will do no good." The 
young man replied, " My dear father ! no man is more 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 343 

diligent in his worldly business than you are, and yet 
no man believes more firmly in the divine decrees. 
Now I want to know whether you stop your plough- 
man ; or whether you refuse to put your money into 
the bank, on .this principle ? If God refuses to bless 
your exertions you will have no crop ; and if he should 
withhold his care of your money, the bank will be no 
place of security. In this mode of reasoning, therefore, 
you have been betraying the worldliness and wicked- 
ness of your heart. You dare not trust the power nor 
the goodness of God in reference to temporal good, 
where your own diligence can secure it ; but in refer- 
ence to the concerns of immortal souls, you shelter 
yourself behind the decrees of God, and you wickedly 
refuse to employ the means which he has directed in 
his word. In the natural world the sovereignty of God 
is no bar to your exertions ; but in the spiritual world 
it must be an extinguisher upon every effort." 

That God saves the soul is true ; and that the de- 
crees of God are absolute, eternal, and immutable, we 
do not deny. His decree cover every thing; they 
reach from the movements of those vast orbs, which 
roll through the regions of immensity, to the disposal 
of the minutest particle of matter. His decrees extend 
to the movement of my hand at this moment. There 
is not a spoke in the smallest wheel of the immense 
machinery but was seen by God from all eternity. 
There is nothing done without God. You plough up 
your ground, and you put your wheat in the field, un- 
der the surveillance of the God of heaven. His decrees, 
I repeat, extend to every thing ; and I believe this as 
firmly as any man in existence can believe it. I speak 



344 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

not, then, against the decrees of God ; but against that 
wicked inference which is drawn from them, that man 
is not a responsible and accountable agent. I bless 
God, that I never yet was able to quiet my conscience 
with such theology. Woe upon the preaching which 
suffers sinners to go down to hell, soothed with the idea 
that they are irresponsible beings. We, saints or sin- 
ners, are not straitened in God. The idea that man is 
not responsible for his want of holiness, is cherished by 
the indolent, and cold, and selfish, in the Church. I 
repeat it, I am not straitened in God. I believe, in ref- 
erence to the inhabitants of London, in reference to the 
congregation now assembled in Surrey chapel, that God 
is more willing to give us spiritual blessings than tem- 
poral. God thinks infinitely more of his spiritual gar- 
den, the Church, than he does of the fields of the hus- 
bandman, or of the crops on the hills. " If ye being 
evil," says God, " know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" 
You did not give your chili} whom you dearly love, a 
stone when he asked you for bread; nor a scorpion 
when he asked you for fish. You gave him what he 
asked. " How much more shall your heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" This one 
doctrine, then, rolls the whole guilt of neglecting per- 
ishing sinners upon the Church. The Church has not 
asked for the holy Ghost as she ought. I have touched 
upon this topic this morning to bring down the awful 
guilt upon my own soul, and to do the same with you. 
I would fain expand this important subject ; but it has - 
already been keeping me too long from the topic on 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 345 

which I am anxious to dwell. It is presented to us in 
Mich. vi. 2 : 

" Hear ye, O mountains ! the Lord's controversy, and 
ye strong foundations of the earth ! for the Lord hath 
a controversy with his people, and he will plead with 
Israel." 

"The Lord hath a controversy with his people." 
And do you ask me. with whom? He has a contro- 
versy with me ; and he has a controversy with every 
one of his ministers who is not willing to labor, and, if 
necessary, to die for souls. I feel painfully that God 
has a controversy with me. I have no right to look 
upon dying souls, standing at the open mouth of the 
pit of hell, with such feelings of heart as I do. God 
has a controversy with his ministers. Where are we 
to look for that bleeding compassion of heart which 
seeks out sinners, weeps over them, and beseeches and 
entreats them to fly to Christ ? And you, my Christian 
friends ! God has a controversy with you. And I am 
come to plead this controversy, and to have it settled. 
A solemn question is asked in the prophecies of Amos, — 
" Can two walk together except they be agreed ?•' Oh ! 
if God be not with us this morning, and if we are not 
agreed with him, we shall be talking to no purpose ; 
our words will be without power. But if God be with 
us, we shall hear him saying, " Fear not, thou worm 
Jacob ! behold ! I will make thee a new sharp threshing 
instrument, thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat 
them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff." He 
can give such power to our lips that we shall make 
London tremble. Oh ! when the heralds of the God 
of Israel go before his face, he will smite " the oaks of 



346 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

Bashan ;" and "all the high mountains" and "the hills 
that are lifted up" shall be brought low ; " and the lofti- 
ness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness 
of men shall be made low ; and the Lord alone shall 
be exalted in that day." But it is a dreadful thing to 
have an unsettled controversy with God ; for two can- 
not walk together except they be agreed. 

My Christian friends ! I am anxious to have this 
controversy settled ; and I have come this morning, I 
say, to plead the Lord's cause ; I commence with you, 
covenant-people of God ! and I beseech you never to 
look up to us as gods ; never to suppose that we can do 
God's work without you ; never to imagine that any 
success will attend our exertions without your prayers : 
for, if you do, God will utterly confound us before your 
face. Oh ! brethren ! idolize not man ; idolize none 
of God's ministers ; but get down into the dust and 
honor God. By our meetings in this place we aim to 
make a movement in the Church, and in the world; at 
which hell shall tremble. And our plan is simple : 
prayer to God for the descent of the Holy Ghost, and 
the manifestation of the truth to every man's conscience. 
It is vital piety, and not a great machinery, that we 
need for this contest. We must not go forth with Saul's 
heavy and cumbrous armor, but with the sling and 
pebbles, by which the Goliaths of iniquity are to be 
smitten to the ground. And do you think that this can 
be done ? It can ; but you must first settle your con- 
troversy with God. 

In the majority of those meetings which have been 
held in America for the revival of religion, the first 
mark of the descent of the Holy Ghost was, the people 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 347 

of God confessing their sins, bewailing their unfaithful- 
ness, and suing for pardon. And, the moment when 
the people of God became humbled in the dust, and 
the ministers came forward personally and confessed 
their sins, sinners began to awake, and to cry for 
mercy. They said, " It is time that we awake ; for 
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the 
ungodly and the sinner appear?" And it will be just 
so with you. If you deeply feel what a dreadful thing 
sin against God is, you will be humbled, and be led to 
sue for pardon ; and it is just in proportion as you, 
Christians, or we, ministers, get this feeling, that we 
shall know how to talk to other men upon the awful 
depravity and wickedness of their hearts. But, till this 
controversy with God is settled, we can do no more 
than open our mouths in a faint whisper for him. The 
Church gets into captivity now, just as the Church of 
old did : and at such seasons we cannot sing one of 
the songs of the Lord in a strange land; we cannot 
open our mouths for God. Oh the dreadfulness of an 
unsettled controversy ! 

Every Christian with an unsettled controversy is an 
Achan in the camp. And what a dreadful character 
is this ! The whole camp of Israel must be impeded 
in their march from this one man having taken the 
Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold, which was 
part of the accursed spoil. There may be an Achan 
here this morning; one who, from practices indulged 
in secret, or from a careless disregard of prayer or other 
known duties, is now staying the descent of the Spirit 
upon this congregation, and impeding the march of 
God's Israel to triumph. Oh ! my brethren ! take care, 



348 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

take care, I beseech you, that you be not placed in this 
awful position ; that you be not Achans in God's camp ; 
that you have not coveted the Babylonish garment and 
the wedge of gold, or hid them in your tents ; that you 
are not hugging to your bosom, at this moment, that 
which God has pronounced accursed. Oh ! say, in all 
the sincerity of your hearts, — « Search me, O God ! and 
know my heart ; try me, and know my thoughts ;" tell 
me what is this controversy which thou hast with me, 
and let it now be settled. If it be a right arm, cut it 
orT ; if it be a right eye, pluck it out ; if it be the world 
that is dear to me, mortify me to it ; or, if it be prayer 
that is neglected, stir me up in that duty. Lord ! what 
is this controversy with me? What wedge of gold, 
what Babylonish garment lies hidden here, that thou 
canst not bless me? Let me die rather than be an 
Achan to impede the march of thine Israel. 

Brethren ! a revival of religion is a personal matter. 
As I remarked yesterday, " The kingdom of God com- 
eth not with observation." If you settle this contro- 
versy, however, and if you are earnest in prayer, the 
Lord will come with power into your hearts. I know 
not how you may have backslidden from God; I 
know not what may have been your besetting sins ; 
I know not in the discharge of what duties you may 
have been deficient : that is a personal matter — it rests 
between God and your own soul ; but this I do know, 
that you must be humbled over your backslidings, re- 
pent of your sins, and return to the discharge of your 
duties, before this controversy between God and you 
can be settled. If this controversy should be with me, 
and if my cold heart should prevent the descent of 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 349 

the Holy Ghost, I pray God it may be settled. Oh ! 
brethren ! let there be deep searchings of heart. 

But what is this controversy which God has with 
his people ? I might here run over a list of a thousand 
things, and thereby show you the backsliding of heart 
and life to which the people of God are sometimes led ; 
but I shall confine myself, this morning, to one point 
alone. It is said in the New Testament, " When the 
Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth V 
We tell it to the city of London, we tell it to Britain, 
we tell it to all the world, that the Son of Man is about 
to come on the earth ; not, as the Millenarians teach, 
to assume a temporal authority, or to establish a per- 
sonal reign ; but in the power of his Spirit, to take pos- 
session of the hearts of thousands, and we hope millions 
of our fellow-men : and we take shame to ourselves 
that his coming has been so long delayed for want of 
our fervent and united prayers. But suppose he does 
come ; have you faith ? Will you be ready to receive 
him? If not, God has a controversy with you ; for you 
are bound to have faith, which is nothing more than 
confidence in God, and believing what he says, and yet 
you dishonor him by your unbelief. 

I take the case of the parent as an illustration of 
what I mean. God says to that father, and to that 
mother, — c That child of yours is hanging over the pit 
of hell, and, unless you take care, will soon be writh- 
ing in the agony of eternal torments.' And yet you 
will not believe him. You bow the knee at the family- 
altar, and you pour out your words ; but there is no 
agonizing or wrestling with God for your child. I 
suppose the child to be exceedingly ill. Your anxiety 

30 



350 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTfc 

now is all alive. You examine his pulse ; you observe 
the painful symptoms of disease ; and you send with 
great haste for the physician. And why? Because 
you have faith in the disease ; faith in the danger of 
the child; and faith in the skill of the physician. Oh ! 
what anxiety, what use of the appointed means of 
recovery, is visible here ! You sit up whole nights, 
watching by the bed of your darling child ; you wait 
with an intenseness of desire for the hour when the 
physician will return ; and if he delays but a few mo- 
ments behind the appointed time, your feelings rise 
almost to agony. And why is it that you feel and act 
thus ? Because you believe. 

Make the application of this, my dear brethren ! Do 
you believe that your child is an enemy to the great 
God? Do you believe that the whole head is sick, and 
the whole heart faint ? Do you believe that, without 
the appointed remedy he must die, and die eternally ? 
And have you sent for the great Physician? and are 
you listening at the door, or watching his countenance, 
to see if you can discover any hope of recovery ? Oh ! 
there is balm in Gilead ; there is a physician there ; 
and yet for want of faith your child is not healed. Go, 
like the Syrophoenician woman to our Lord, and say, 
" My daughter, my daughter, is sore vexed with a 
devil. Lord ! help me." Is there a man here who 
says that this is extravagant ? I tell that man that he 
gives the lie to the whole Bible. I believe in the 
warning and burning truths of the Bible ; and I delight 
to present them to my hearers, because I know that 
we all need to be aroused. Just take that one example, 
dear brethren ! — the example of unbelief presented in 






THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 351 

your indifference about the souls of your children ; and 
begin to plead with God in earnest, and to give him no 
rest until he shall come and heal. 

I would not thus expand this subject, but I want to 
lead you to settle your controversy with God. Why 
am I so cold, so indifferent about the salvation of souls, 
so unlike the Son of Cod ? Why are the children of a 
king so lean? Why this want of spiritual health? 
Why this coldness in prayer, this sluggishness in duty, 
this backwardness in doing God's work? Oh ! my 
brother ! my sister ! settle your personal controversy 
with God ; and let Christ have delight in coming to 
his garden and eating his pleasant fruit. Come to the 
altar of God now, and plead down the blessing. If 
you all settle your controversy with God ; if you all 
become reconciled with his dear Son; if you all obtain 
the witness of God's Spirit with your spirit, what a 
blessed meeting this will have been ! If we have been 
up to the mount, and have held converse with our 
Father, then our faces will shine as did the face of 
Moses, the beauty of which we shall be unable to con- 
ceal from the world. 

But suppose God should favor us with a revival of 
religion, what will be its effect upon the world? I will 
tell you. A minister once said. — " The Church of God 
is like a column of air. When the air becomes rarifled 
it rises up, and other air from around rushes in to sup- 
ply its place." Just so is it with the Church. The 
moment the Church of God rises in spiritual warmth 
toward heaven, it rises, and rises, as a cloud, and it 
carries others along with it. The warm air has 
ascended ; and the dense atmosphere has rushed to 



352 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE, &C. 

supply its place. Christians having been aroused to a 
sense of their responsibilities and privileges, sinners 
flock around, witnessing the effect which has been pro- 
duced. Are there any such present this morning? 
Sinners ! God has a controversy with you. Oh ! I 
beseech you, I beseech you, as though God did beseech 
by me, — I beseech you in Christ's stead, — as though 
the blessed Jesus stood where I now stand, — 1 beseech 
you, " Be ye reconciled to God !" O sinners ! 
delay not one moment ; " tarry not in all the plain ;" 
go to God at once by Jesus Christ. 



ADDRESS III. 

Christian Friends ! 

It is a very interesting- sight, as your beloved pastor 
has remarked, to see at this hour of the day, and that, 
too, on one of the busiest days of the week, so many 
persons assembled together for the purpose of prayer ; 
and it brings no small responsibility upon him who 
has undertaken to guide the minds of this assembly. I 
feel no hesitation, my beloved brethren ! in holding up 
to you, and all my fellow-Christians, this one subject — 
the desirableness there is that the eternal Spirit, the 
almighty Agent of conversion and sanctification, pro- 
ceeding from the Father and the Son, should come 
into every heart in this assembly ; and the desirable- 
ness there is that this eternal Spirit should come down, 
in his quickening and sanctifying influences, upon all 
our churches. I am impressed with the importance, 
and with the solemn duty, of urging upon this congre- 
gation the necessity of prayer for the Holy Ghost to 
descend upon them, upon every church of Christ, and 
upon the whole race of man. 

Our subject, then, is the desirableness of prayer for 
the outpouring of the Spirit. 

Prayer includes two sentiments — the heart's deep 
feeling of its necessities, and an assured confidence that 

30* 



354 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

God will give the blessings sought. The first of these 
is spiritual desire, the second is faith. 

Let holy desires be enkindled in our hearts. You 
have heard that, when the disciples met to wait for the 
promise of the Father, they were all of one accord. 
Their minds were set upon some great object; they 
were in expectation of some great event, some mighty 
resting of the Spirit of God upon the souls of his people. 
Hence they went as humble suppliants, and waited on 
God till the blessing came. 

A respected brother of a different denomination, (Mr. 
Stevenson,) has said that we are all agreed about some- 
thing. I bless God that we are ; and when we get to 
heaven we shall be agreed about every thing. We 
shall be of one accord. There is one great subject that 
would make one vast prayer-meeting of the whole 
Church of God, and that one subject is the necessity 
and the desirableness of the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
and there is none but needs to be baptized with the 
Holy Ghost ; and my humble endeavor is now, under 
the blessing of God, to increase the sense of that want 
in the hearts of all his people. May we now enjoy the 
sense of his presence ! 

We want the Holy Ghost; and if there is desire 
enough, and faith enough, we shall receive the Holy 
Ghost. But what will be the influence of the Spirit of 
God upon our hearts when he does come ? I will not 
run over all the wide field, but will select here and 
there a few solitary proofs of his presence. 

And, First, If the Spirit of God descend upon this 
assembly", we shall find what has been the cause of his 
absence. 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 355 

Blessed be God, we have felt the power of the Spirit 
at the meeting just held in Mr. Sherman's house, and 
we desire him to visit us again. When he comes, it is 
not to convince us of general truths, but of that which 
concerns us personally. He tells us what is the cause 
of his absence ; he points out the particular sins of 
which we have been guilty ; he reveals the nature and 
causes of our backsliding from God ; he stamps an in- 
dividuality upon our particular failings and short- 
comings ; he holds up the glass to our eyes, and makes 
us look at ourselves as we really are. 

Religion, we know, is a personal matter ; and when 
the Spirit of God is come, the " family of the house 
of David shall mourn apart, and their wives apart ; 
the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their 
wives apart ; the family of the house of Levi apart, 
and their wives apart ; the family of Shimei apart, and 
their wives apart ; all the families that remain, every 
family apart, and their wives apart." Such is the work 
of the Spirit of God. He comes to take us apart, to 
show us individually the deformity of our backslidings, 
to lead us to mourn over them apart, and to constrain 
us to plead anew for sanctifying grace. This personal 
influence we need that we may see our individual sins. 
Oh that he may show us why we were so dead, why 
our hearts did not break under the power of his word ; 
why we could be content to live at such a distance 
from him ; why we were satisfied when doing so little 
for his cause ! No individual man can tell you, but 
the Holy Ghost can. He can whisper to your con- 
science, and show you where the evil lies. Pray for 
him to come, then, and show you why you are so cold. 



356 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

why you have no more delight in the service of Jesus 
Christ, no more devotedness to him. Pray for him to 
come upon you as the Spirit of life. Pray for him to 
come and convince the world of sin, and the Church 
of her backslidings from God. The Church is in cap- 
tivity, and she must be made to break the yoke of her 
thraldom, and stand forth, in the eyes of the world, 
invested with that glorious freedom to which she is 
entitled, by virtue of the union that she sustains to her 
great Head. 

Secondly, If the Spirit of God descends upon this 
assembly, he will shed abroad the love of Christ in 
your hearts. 

How sweet is the love of Christ ! How desirable to 
have the love of Christ "shed abroad in our hearts by 
the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us !" To be like 
Christ, to love Christ; this is heaven begun. And we 
have heaven in our souls, and the enjoyment of heaven 
in prospect, just in proportion as we have love to 
Christ, and likeness to his image. But we want more 
love to Christ, and we must have more likeness to 
Christ. And how is this to be obtained ? No sermon 
can do it ; even prayer itself will not do it ; but prayer 
will do it by bringing down the Spirit. Let us, then, 
put ourselves in a prayerful and waiting posture for 
the coming of the Holy Ghost ! 

" I will spread the sail, 
Blow thou the breeze, and waft me to my home." 

If God calls men to be the partakers of his ^race, and 
if the love of Christ is shed abroad in their hearts, 
they will be willing to wear out in his service. The 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 357 

love of Christ constrains them. They are willing 
to do any thing for Christ so long as he gives them 
strength. 

We want more of this love. We must not be so 
selfish in our religious feelings. We must have the 
Spirit of God as a spirit of compassion to perishing 
sinners. If we saw the actual condition of sinners, 
their deep depravity and guilt, their hideous deformity 
in the sight of God, we should not be able to rest by 
day or by night. We want the Holy Ghost to show 
us their actual condition ; to show us how hateful 
they are in God's sight ; and to show us upon what 
a fearful precipice they stand. No man can show 
us; nothing but the Spirit of God can do this. But 
when he begins to exhibit the awful danger of sinners, 
and the certainty of their destruction, the Church is 
aroused from her stupor, and puts up her prayers, and 
combines her efforts on their behalf. How tenderly 
did the Apostle Paul feel, when he said, " My con- 
science beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I 
have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my 
heart; for I could wish that myself were accursed 
from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according 
to the flesh !" How earnest, how intense, was his 
desire for the salvation of his brethren ! And such 
is the effect of the love of Christ wherever it is pos- 
sessed. It is a love that works ; it is a love that 
warms ; it is a love that instructs ; it is a love that 
beseeches ; it is a love that prays for, that bleeds for, 
and that dies for poor sinners, if called to it by the 
providence of God. If this love for Christ dwelt in 
the hearts of professing Christians as it ought ; if it 



358 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

existed in our churches to the extent we have reason 
to believe that it should ; how differently would they 
act ! Oh ! if we possessed this love, there is not a 
street in London, there is not an alley, nor a lane, 
in which the voice of tearful and warning expostu- 
lation would not be heard. We should seek out 
sinners, we should weep over them ; we should warn 
them, and " compel them to come in." Oh ! there 
is too little sympathy with the compassion of Christ 
in our churches ; they are lukewarm, they are lifeless 
and dead. Zion is at ease ; and you, her members, 
are willing to go home to your lovely families, to 
your well-furnished houses, to your cheerful fire-sides, 
and to your well-spread tables, and see your neigh- 
bors going to hell, without so much as an effort to 
effect their escape. When I say you., I mean myself. 
O this insensible heart ! how little does it weep over 
sinners ! how little does it bleed for their woes ! And 
is it better with you ? Oh ! to have the compassionate 
mind that was in Christ ! The want of this makes us 
feel our want of the Holy Ghost. 

Thirdly, If the Holy Ghost should come as we 
desire and have prayed for, I will tell you how he will 
come, — Sinners will flock to your sanctuaries until 
you have not sufficient room to hold them. 

How different is the preaching of ministers in a 
time of revival ! The world hears of the change, 
and comes to listen to them. The world says, — « This 
is the kind of preaching that will do us good/ Yes ; 
and they are better judges of this matter than some 
of you may be ready to think. I have heard men, 
during a time of revival, who, by the strength of 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 359 

their language, and frequency of their appeals, have 
so galled and offended the impenitent, that they have 
gone out, condemning the preachers, and saying that 
they would never come again ; but these same per- 
sons have been found in attendance on the next 
sermon. Whether they love or hate the preaching, 
they will come to hear it ; and God will humble 
their hearts, make them bow down to truth, and bring 
them to himself. The apostle Paul said, — " Brethren ! 
pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have 
free course and be glorified f and we, his uninspired 
successors, say, — < pray for us, that we may be 
faithful to our trust, and successful in our work.' 
We cannot do without your prayers. The arduous 
nature of our work, and the opposition we have to 
encounter, demand your prayers. Pray for your min- 
ister, brethren ! and pray for us, that we may have 
the Holy Ghost in our hearts ; and shed abroad the 
spirit of prayer. 

The melancholy termination of every revival has 
been caused by the withdrawal of divine influence, 
and that by the sins of the Church. The efforts at 
first were great, and great good was effected. But 
in a short time there was lukewarmness of heart, 
and they settled down again upon their lees, I hope 
that there will be such a revival of religion here as 
will continue to the end of time. We do not want 
periodical revivals ; but we want a revival for this 
year, for the next, and for all the periods of future 
time, to continue till the blast of the archangel's trump 
is heard. To secure this we want the Spirit of God 
as a spirit of prayer. Like Jacob, who wrestled with 



360 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE 

the angel, "till the morning light/' we must say, — 
" I will not let thee go except thou bless me." And 
this must be not the transient impulse of the heart 
merely, but one continued and persevering deter- 
mination. If a revival should be granted, and we 
should then turn aside, the blame and the sin would 
rest with ourselves. 

There is often much in a revival of religion that no 
eye can see. Some poor, but consistent, mother in Is- 
rael, perhaps, has great power with God in her closet. 
The state of those around her affects her heart, and she 
retires to her closet and pours out her heart in prayer. 
She prays for her minister : and she makes him power- 
ful by the prevalency of her prayers. The world sees 
his power of persuasion, and his increased earnestness 
and success in his work, but they know not all the links 
of the golden chain. Ye aged mothers in Israel ! we 
look to you for your prayers. Forget us not when you 
retire to your closets. Pray that our hands may be 
strengthened by the Almighty God of Jacob. 

I have one more reason to offer, to show the desira- 
bleness of our praying for the outpouring of the Spirit, 
and that is : 

That, if the Spirit shall descend in answer to our 
prayers, there will be a great awakening of sinners to 
a sense of their danger. 

In the midst of some of our revivals in America, it is 
astonishing what effects have been produced. Convic- 
tions, of the most astonishing kind, have been brought 
under our notice. When the Spirit of God has moved 
upon the hearts of a community in answer to prayer, a 
single passage of Scripture, or a single warning or ex- 



THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 361 

hortation delivered at some former period, has come 
with overwhelming power to the minds of the impeni- 
tent. I remember a remarkable instance, which may 
serve to illustrate my meaning. The young man re- 
lated this story to me himself. His father and mother 
were going to a protracted meeting for a revival of re- 
ligion in the neighborhood, and they desired him to 
accompany them. He had no desire for such meetings, 
and determined not to go. His parents then went, and 
left him at home ; but you may be sure that they did 
not neglect to pray for him. After they were gone he 
began to feel uneasy, and wished that he had accom- 
panied them. He determined, however, to drive away 
the thought, and tried to amuse himself, taking up first 
one thing and then another. He still felt a dreadful 
chasm. He then thought that he heard a voice saying 
to him, " Come, and let us reason together," &c. He 
tried to get rid of it, but in vain. The voice seemed 
to say, — l It is thy God who says it ; if you have any 
thing to say, answer your God ; come. Is it not rea- 
sonable that you should love him V He again tried to 
get rid of it, and went into another part of the house 
for the purpose, but, " Come, let us reason together," 
&c, still sounded in his ears, and so continued to fol- 
low him, that he at last cast himself on his knees, and 
cried out, — < My God, I have no reason ; I am a most 
unreasonable sinner.' He arose from his knees, went 
to the protracted meeting, and placed himself beside his 
father and mother, to whom he related what had oc- 
curred. This was the beginning of the work of the 
Spirit on his soul, which resulted in his conversion. 
Many such things as this may occur among you, if 
31 



362 ADDRESSES TO PROMOTE. &C. 

the Spirit of God should now come in answer to our 
prayers. If not, we may abandon our meetings and 
return to our worldly avocation ; or rather humble our- 
selves and wait upon the Lord until he come. Impeni- 
tent sinner ! we want the Spirit for you, to convince 
you of your danger, and to lead you to fly to Jesus 
Christ as the sinner's friend. Oh ! let us, my dear 
brethren ! pray for the spirit ; and let us determine to 
give God no rest until " the day-spring from on high 
hath visited us." 



ADDRESS IV. 



EXTRACT FROM AN ADDRESS ON THE EFFORTS OF 
THE AMERICAN CHRISTIANS FOR THE CONVERSION 
OF THE HEATHEN. 

I may here remark, that the accounts of those dear 
Baptist brethren — Fuller, Ryland, Care?/, and others — 
as to the destitution of the East, laid the foundation of 
missions in America. It is strange to find, however, 
that the spark which had thus been blown, should have 
been so long in kindling among us. About the year 
1810, there was a little band of men — four, I believe in 
number— among whom was the future husband of Har- 
riet Neivell, as also, Gordon Hall ;— names with which 
I have no doubt you are all acquainted. These young 
men read the accounts forwarded to them from time to 
time ; they heard of the prevalence of infanticide in 
the different parts of the globe ; they beheld the iron 
sceptre of paganism swayed over the souls of millions 
of their fellow-immortals, and they wept ; for the feel- 
ings, which brought the Son of God from heaven to 
earth, had taken possession of their breasts. Though 
they loved their country, their homes, their literature, 
their civil and religious privileges ; yet, following the 
example of him who, " though he was rich, yet for our 



364 MISSIONARY EFFORTS 

sakes became poor," they were found ready to abandon 
all. and to become as poor as their Master, if thereby 
their fellow-creatures might be made rich, 

I love to look back to the origin of modern missions, 
and to trace the progress they have made ; because I 
now find that infidels are beginning to look upon them 
with respect. We have given to a whole nation lan- 
guage and literature ; improvements in the arts of civi- 
lized life; civil and religious privileges; and a code 
of laws based upon those of Britain and America. In- 
fidels ascribe this to the advance of philosophy ; but 
far from this is the fact, for it had its origin in that 
love to Christ which existed in the bosoms of a few 
pious young men. Influenced by love to souls, they 
were accustomed to pour out their hearts in prayer at 
the back of a hay-stack, which was near to the college: 
and there called down a missionary spirit from heaven, 
which has proved the glory of our country. 

It is always pleasing to trace the simplicity of God's 
plans in the execution of his own work. He chooses 
the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, 
the foolish to confound the wise, and the things that 
are not to put to naught the things that are. Philoso- 
phers have said, " Extend the arts and sciences, pro- 
mote commerce, establish colleges, and send out learned 
men.'"' We waited for years for these philosophic men 
to act, but we waited in vain. They have not that 
love for Jesus in their hearts, which would lead them 
to eat the bread of sorrow with the poor heathen, for 
the sake of elevating them to the enjoyment of the great 
and glorious privileges of the Gospel of Christ. No ! 
God has wrought this by simpler means. He influen- 



OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANS. 365 

ces the hearts of a few young men with love to him, 
and the Spirit of Jesus sanctifies their prayers and 
efforts to the accomplishment of this great end. 

At the time these young men first met to consult and 
pray over the state of the heathen, there was no man in 
our country who would then advocate the cause of 
missions. A man who would then have given a hun- 
dred dollars to the cause of Christ would have been 
blazoned from one end of the land to the other ; but 
there are now those who give their thousands without 
its eliciting more than a passing remark. The contrast 
in this, and in other respects, is exceedingly great. 
When these young men had debated the matter among 
themselves, they consulted some of the aged ministers 
in the neighborhood upon the subject, but they obtained 
no light. At last they thought of going before a body 
of Congregational ministers in a neighboring state, who 
were about to assemble at their annual convention, and 
agreed to lay before them the whole of their feelings 
and deliberations upon the subject, and to abide by 
their decision. These fathers of the Church were as- 
tonished at the glow of their zeal ; but after much 
deliberation and prayer, what was the result 1 Why, 
that, whilst they did not question the zeal or the devo- 
tedness of the parties, it was not possible for the whole 
of the American churches, at that time, to support four 
men. This was the state of feeling on the subject of 
missions in America, in 1810 ; and yet now, blessed be 
God ! we have at least three hundred missionaries em- 
ployed ; and I know one church that provides for its 
minister and supports a missionary. But what next 
did these parties do to whom these young men had ap- 

31* 



.366 MISSIONARY EFFORTS 

plied for advice ? Why, they sent them to England to 
try to raise the necessary funds there ; but, blessed be 
God ! the English laughed at them, and sent them 
back, telling them to try the churches in their own 
country, and not degrade them by saying that they 
were unable to support four isolated missionaries. 
They returned and tried the churches, and there found 
more piety and zeal than they had been led to expect. 
Last year, as is generally known, was a year of great 
depression to America : and yet there was no flagging 
in the missionary spirit. This I consider as a redeem- 
ing fact in favor of America, and nothing has more 
cheered my heart, during an absence of eighteen months 
from that country, than to know that they have been 
able to meet the demands which were against them, 
without the slightest decrease in the missionary treas- 
ure. One society only in America, and that the one 
established by these young men, annually expends fifty 
thousand dollars in the cause of the heathen. We 
have now stations at Siam, at Constantinople, at Bom- 
bay, at Calcutta, in China, in the Sandwich Islands, 
and at sundry other places; and have in connection 
with the Society 300 missionaries, of whom 150 are 
ordained ministers. Every time .that we receive ac- 
counts from the Isles of the Pacific, we find that they 
are improving in their civil and political condition, and 
that such is their eagerness to receive our tracts and 
books, that it is impossible to print them fast enough. 
Well may we say, " What has God wrought V To 
such an extent did infanticide exist at the time when 
we commenced our operations there, that it was cal- 
culated that the whole of these islands would have 



OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANS. 367 

been depopulated in the course of thirty years. In- 
stead of this, they are now, not only rapidly increasing 
in civilization, but as steadily advancing in numbers. 
Here is a striking illustration of the value of money 
expended in the missionary cause. Blessed be God for 
teaching this people this lesson ! 



3477 7 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




017 458 451 5 



